The Retrieval

Title: The Retrieval
Author: Lucius Parhelion
Cover artist: n/a
Publisher: Torquere press
Amazon: n/a
Genre: Historical Romance
Length: 62 pages/16300 words/novellette
Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5

A guest review by Sirius

Summary: A trip to retrieve gifts leads to unexpected consequences for two friends, which I enjoyed immensely — both the trip and the consequences.

Blurb:

It’s 1932, and Hollywood is entering its golden age. Charlie Hunter, veteran of the Algonquin Round Table, has just arrived to start his new contract as a scriptwriter. Jake Mor, an old friend and protégée, planned to help Charlie with his house-hunting. Unfortunately, Laura Moore, Jake’s twin and Charlie’s other protégée, has asked them to pick up her gifts for a studio bigwig first. Worse, she needs Charlie for an escort to the bigwig’s birthday party.

Antique hunting equipment is an odd gift. A rare, pedigree Weimaraner is a surprising gift. But what Jake has learned about his preferences in Hollywood is the most startling gift of all. In just one day a swimming pool, a predatory studio executive’s wife, a hand-carved teal decoy, and Ducky the dog lure Charlie and Jake into unwrapping what has been hidden between them for far too long.

Review:

I have read one story by this author, which was reviewed on this site and called Faster Than the Speed of Light. I enjoyed that one immensely, and after reading this one, I have a desire to go and buy all books this author ever published (and had my TBR not have about 200 books, I would have done this in a second). The writing in this book was so crisp and the humor worked for me perfectly; in fact, this story has several of the funniest lines I have read in a very long time. For once I thought the blurb for this story was written perfectly, as in not revealing too much and still giving a brief summary of what is happening in the story.

This novelette has a perfect scope for not very long story — it only covers one day in our characters’ life and takes place in Hollywood, where one of the main characters moves to. As the blurb tells you, his protégées brother and sister Jake and Lora are already living and making their careers. While the story only covers one day, the writer did not let me doubt for one second that Jake and Charlie know each other very, very well. Their banter when they are going to pick out Lora’s er… gifts shows the reader how comfortable they are with each other, even if there was one aspect of their lives where they chose to keep secrets from each other.

I was actually quite surprised in a good way as to how in a few short paragraphs the author painted the picture of what was the atmosphere in Hollywood in those days and how very accurate it was, as far as I remember. While it required a little bit of an info dump, it did not bore me and it did not feel overwhelming, but quite relevant to the story and who Jake was. It was just a part of two friends’ conversation which quickly moved to much more amusing subjects. Let me clarify, I thought the research was accurate, but my knowledge, based mostly on taking a day trip with the guide in Los Angeles, is recent enough that I still remember a lot of things he told us. If the guide was incorrect, well I will stand corrected then. 🙂

There is really not much happening in this story, thus revealing any detail which happens during their trip would be a rather significant spoiler for the story of this length. Let me just say that while I thought that chemistry between Charlie and Jake was quite restrained, it was definitely there for me, simmering all the time on the background and eventually taking the front row so to speak. I found both Jake and Charlie to be funny, intelligent, very likeable characters, but Ducky the dog was probably the funniest one.

“For a moment, Charlie had the oddest notion that Ducky would bow and kiss the back of her hand as he clicked both sets of heels. Instead the dog settled for a polite sniff, and a soft, approving noise.”

Our heroes especially show their intelligence in the last couple of pages in this story, and they both show very quick thinking. 🙂

Highly recommended.