Blue Springs

BLUE SPRINGS by Peter Rennebohm is a charming story that I would call mainstream rather than genre, even though there are several murders and two thoroughly nasty villains. I first thought of BLUE SPRINGS as an allegory: Innocence abroad in a dangerous world with Evil stalking close behind. The word map at Visual Thesaurus online suggested parable and fable. I'll go with fable. Charlie is 11 years old. His father is a mean drunk and a hunter who has an ongoing beef with a neighboring bird poacher. Charlie blames himself for his father's problems and thinks it's best for everyone if he leaves home. With limited means except for two valuable coins that he hopes to sell, he takes his dog Taffy and slips away early one morning. Word about the coins passes from shady dealer to shady dealer and soon a hit man is on Charlie's trail. The hit man is foiled time and again by the bird poacher's clumsy attempts to snatch the boy for the sake of revenge. The hit man is the most inept assassin to come down the pike since forever. If he weren't so vicious he would be funny. The author devotes an entire chapter to the man's journey from Pentecostal preacher's son, to hero of the French Resistance, to infantry sniper on D-Day, to post-war contract killer. By contrast, the bird poacher is simple pond scum. Charlie is joined on the road by Quill, a philosophic older man who left home years earlier, also because of misplaced guilt. When they reach the edge of the Minnesota prairie, Quill quotes Emily Dickinson: "To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,/ One clover, and a bee,/ And revery./ The revery alone will do/ If bees are few." BLUE SPRINGS is whatever the reader takes away from it. To me it's a fable and (using the poet's spelling) a revery, beautifully written. Pat Browning Author of Full Circle www.prairiegal.net

This is an excellent book! Blue Springs has the most heartbreakingly sweet child, ever. I want to grab Charlie and his equally adorable dog Taffy and have them come live with me. When someone can write well enough to make me want to take in a child and a dog, I gotta think its better than pretty good.

The author, Peter Rennebohm, is a very nice man. I've never met him, but I know this from his writing; he is the kind of man one wishes lived next door to one's children, so they could grow up and learn really worthwhile things about the world. BLUE SPRINGS is told from the point of view of eleven year old Charlie Nash. Traumatic experiences shock Charlie and he considers running away from home with his dog, Taffy, a golden retriever. The bad guys in BLUE SPRINGS are suitably terrible--moreover, they are wolves in sheep's clothing--and Charlie falls victim to the kind of adult antics where the child is the guaranteed loser. Also there are two villains intent on destroying the boy, each with differing motives. That's a lot of world hatred and misfortune to focus around one eleven year old boy, but Charlie is an extraordinary child. The boy gains a much needed adult protector--almost. This is handled well. Charlie's adventures lead him on to meet many fallen angels, normal people with a few dents and bruises. Seen through Charlie's eyes, these people give the story its sense of wonder. And of course Charlie learns some tough lessons from the man whom we wished lived next door. The storyline is engaging; tension is maintained throughout, and keeps the reader turning pages. Many characters are complex, well drawn, and do unexpected things. There are one or two instances where the narrator's point of view is rather more adult than it should be, but the story is otherwise consistent. What's required to enjoy this story is a rainy day or a sunny Sunday afternoon, a comfortable chair, possibly a cup of tea and BLUE SPRINGS. And the willingness to participate in a wonderful adventure. Theresa de Valence, Mystery Fiction Reviewer

In this wonderful read we meet a delightful young boy named Charlie and his dog Taffy. Charlie is like any other boy with all their fears, hopes and dreams; but Charlie has a problem. His dad is an alcoholic and because of this Charlie's life is about to change forever. Frank, Charlie's dad is taking him on a hunting trip and Charlie is excited. However, Frank has too much to drink on the way and has an accident. Afraid, he leaves the scene, but not before the man in the other car sees his face. As fate would have it, this man Pisant, is evil and is also connected to Frank's past. To top it off, he sees him again while hunting and decides it is time for pay-back. His plot to get even with Frank for the accident and memories of the past is dark and devious. Upon their return trip Frank again gets drunk and is pulled over by the law. He is thrown in jail for 30 days. Charlie, ashamed and distraught decides it is time to leave. He has one treasure that perhaps will bring him money, a special coin collection that his uncle left him. Charlie takes this collection to a dealer his uncle had told him about, but unfortunately this man has met with a strange accident and is dead. His partner looks at Charlie's coins and realizes they are worth a fortune, but does not tell the boy, who has decided he would not be interested in selling them. Instead, he plots with an unscrupulous lawyer to steal the coins even if it means the families death. A hit man is hired and told to get the coins at any cost. Creepy! The two evil men,Pisant and the hit man, unknown to each other, stalk the family for their own intents and are surprised when young Charlie is seen leaving. Thus begins the adventure of a lifetime as Charlie travels with Taffy, hunted and running for his life. We are introduced to another important character as Pisant decides to kidnap Charlie to get to his father but unbeknown to him, an older man named Quill sees what has happened and intervenes saving Charlie's life and befriending him and Taffy. Quill has a secret of his own and the two will draw upon each other's strengths that will surely mean their survival. I don't want to reveal anymore of this story but I can tell you it is a real page turner. You have not one but two evil characters, family conflict, a wonderful child with his loveable dog and an elderly man with a heart of gold, that truly makes a difference in this young boy's life. The author pens the characters to perfection in the parts they play in this read. This book has mystery, adventure, hatred, greed and love. It is layered with conflict, spiced with loyalty, splattered with adventure and ends with joy. Exceptional and worth every moment of your time. Shirley Johnson Senior Reviewer/MidWest Book Review

An alcoholic parent can make children react in a variety of ways and can even lead to their running away from home. Such is the case with eleven year old Charlie Nash, who takes off one day in 1955 with his dog Taffy, after his father Frank was imprisoned for driving while intoxicated. Charlie was a witness to Frank's drunk behavior, as he had been a passenger in his father's car, while both were on their way to a week-end of hunting. Blue Springs, Peter Rennebohm's third book, is well-plotted, intertwining and exploring a network of thoughtful asides with poignant sensitivity, as family relationships, alcoholism, forgiveness, life's tragedies and child abuse. What is noteworthy about the author's writing is the subtlety with which he embeds these complex ideas into the novel. It is also a mystery involving a cast of some offbeat shady characters, who hire an assassin to track down Charlie, after they discover that he is in possession of two very valuable pennies worth thousands of dollars. Charlie is a likeable and emotionally mature kid, who is in a tough spot and is unaware of the evil characters that are hunting him down. Not only are his valuable coins attracting some very malicious and unsavory characters, he is also oblivious that another mean spirited individual, Virgil Pisant, unrelated to the first group, is likewise after him. Apparently, Pisant has some old scores to settle with Charlie's father, and he plans to kidnap Charlie as retribution. The story follows Charlie and Taffy from their hopping on a freight train in Minneapolis to meeting up with Quill Purdue, who is returning home to Blue Springs, South Dakota, after his departure 10 years ago, following a most unfortunate personal incident. To complicate matters, Quill is suffering from a life threatening medical problem-abdominal aortic aneurism. The most absorbing parts of this book concern the intimate moments shared between Charlie and Quill, wherein the compassionate character of Quill illuminates the dark world that Charlie had been subjected to. On the other hand, with a little help from Charlie's innocent prodding, Quill comes to terms with the ghosts of a personal tragedy. One of the shortcomings of the book is that sometimes it feels over-busy with its secondary characters and their superfluous babble, particularly the biblical quotations uttered by one of the "bad guys." However, in spite of this, the story is engaging and will definitely hold your interest until the last page. Norm Goldman, Editor of Bookpleasures