Center Point by R.M. Clark
Center Point is the debut ‘grown up’ novel of the author R. M. Clark. I was given an eBook copy by the author with the request to read and review. I do love adventure novels, so I took it with me on my holidays abroad to read.
The story evolves around Dennis Kozma, who is basically wasting his time, life and his father’s money on college education, not really knowing what to do with his life and not really comes, he gets a visit from one of his dad’s friends, who gives him a gift coming from his deceased father and promptly tells him the funds for his education is now cut off.
He has at most another semester at the college, after which he has to graduate and do something worthwhile with his life. Like figure out what is that package with a list of names, and old map and some Native American drawings that his dad left him and why.
His dad was once a city official years ago until he had to retire in shame due to some shady issues of which he was accused of. Soon he passed away and now it’s up to Dennis to not only figure out the mystery behind the package he got, but also clear the name of his dad in the process.
During his journey of discovery while following the clues he learns more about the town’s past and a particular battle during the days of the Revolution, when the town was victorious in a very mysterious way.
In addition it seems that the drawings that he got handed down from his dad are actually changing. He could swear that the face of the Native American is changing every single day when he looks at it.
Soon Dennis realizes that figuring out what happened in the past, why people are looking away when one mentions the name Komaket and why some weird things start to really make sense on the map he was given will also clear his father’s name of any wrongdoings once he gets to the bottom of it all.
There are lots of clues popping up, getting Dennis to reveal just a bit more about the whole town’s secret every day, which makes for a pleasant and fun read. There is plenty of action and suspense, and the story unfolds at a natural (and at times surprising) pace. What do have a secret society, an ancient Native American legend, patterns in the town’s cemetery and dad’s last wish in common? Dennis has his hands full in solving the puzzle that is his town and the more you read the more you realize that there are more secrets in this quiet town that meets the eye.
The end chapters definitely kept me at the edge of my seat and and when I finished the book, it made me think about it for a while.
This is also a Hero’s journey for Dennis, who realizes that he has to stop wasting his life and become a real man. Each clue that he follows gets him there one bit at a time. That is his dad’s gift for him, wrapped up along with the mysterious artifacts.
Initially it was not easy to see Dennis as the detective type, however he handled himself quite well, balancing this aspect with his mundane life which consisted of his struggles to find a decent flat and his annoyance with his OCD stepfather.
Overall it was a great book that I found interestingly enough to keep me reading to the last page. While at the moment it seems that Center Point is a standalone novel, I hope at some point the author will write a follow-up, turning it into an adventure series.
To learn more about Center point by R.M. Clark or to get the book, head over to Amazon.
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