She has lived in Reno, on the coast of Maine, in the interior of Alaska, and near Death Valley, but she currently is being held against her will in Tyler, Texas. He lives in western Maryland where he teaches fiction writing and raises two children, both too smart for their own good. His short stories have appeared in over thirty magazines. Two of his books have been Booksense 76 selections. Regional author tour.Brad Barkley is the author of two adult novels ( Money, Love and Alison's Automotive Repair Manual) and two story collections, the most recent of which is Another Perfect Catastrophe. The blend of romance and how-to should prove enticing, and will help Barkley build his reader base. Money, Love was a Book Sense 76 pick, and Barkley's latest comes supplied with blurbs by Jill McCorkle and Glen David Gold, among others. The icing on the cake is the author's touching portrayal of smalltown life in West Virginia. This subplot slows the romantic momentum, but the combination of Barkley's understated comic style and well-calibrated dialogue is more than enough to overcome the misstep. Barkley spends a bit too much time on Max's father, a compulsive liar whose habit is beginning to interfere with Max's relationship with Alison. Their initial dates are as explosive as they are funny, with Alison accompanying Max while he blows up a silo and then scopes out the hotel that may be his next target. Sparks really start to fly, however, when Max Kesler, the owner of a one-man munitions company, comes to help her with the project. She's already spent two years in mourning, and in spite of Sarah and Bill's pleas that she get on with it, Alison makes yet another bid to prolong her suspended state: she's going to rebuild her brother-in-law's broken-down Corvette, and then Alison Durst is the witty, 30-ish protagonist who's become a semipermanent guest of her sister Sarah and brother-in-law Bill ever since her husband died in an accident. Martin's, $23.95 (288p) ISBN 8-8Īutomotive repair doubles as grief therapy in Barkley's quirky, emotionally resonant third novel (after Money, Love) set in a small town in West Virginia, where a newly widowed young woman tries to delay putting her life back together. ALISON'S AUTOMOTIVE REPAIR MANUAL Brad Barkley.
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