Book review: Unlikely odds become secret reality

May 25, 2017

Reviewed by Lawrence McConnell. McConnell is executive editor of The Roanoke Times and an avid reader of both fiction and non-fiction.

​​

 

Fred Shackelford’s first novel adheres to some of Elmore Leonard’s 10 rules for good writing. For those new to crime fiction, Leonard was its master in the 20th century, primarily for his economy of prose and his gift for dialogue that revealed character and propelled plot in books such as “Get Shorty,” “Out of Sight” and nearly 40 more.

​

The odds are in Shackelford’s favor that he’ll build on his experience from writing “The Ticket.” It is a novel about improbabilities, including odds, as in the Virginia Lottery’s odds of about 259 million-to-1 for the winning ticket held by the book’s central, unsavory character, Channing Booker.

​

Consider, too, the astronomical odds of timing. To avoid having to share the $241 million prize with a spouse he’s aiming to divorce, Booker hides the winning ticket from his wife, placing it inside a book at his home. To his horror, it disappears the very next day, along with his wife, who’s shipped the book along with other personal effects from their house to an undisclosed location.

​

As the clock ticks to the deadline to cash in the ticket, Booker draws various associates and henchmen into a web of schemes to hide his dealings from his law partners, locate his wife and recover the winning ticket before it’s worthless. The surprises along the journey to a showdown are as improbable as winning the lottery but satisfying nonetheless.

​

This is a breezy read that is well-plotted, with more than the requisite number of twists to keep readers entertained. Shackelford, a lawyer by trade, lives in Charlottesville. For a first novel, this is a wise choice for the setting, because of his familiarity with the area and, more importantly, the legal system, specifically divorce laws. He’s also faithful to a number of Leonard’s rules for good novel writing, including:

​

• No. 1. Never open a book with weather. Check. Shackelford dives right into the moment Channing discovers he has the winning ticket.

• No. 2. Avoid prologues. See No. 1.

• No. 3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue. Check.

• No. 5. Keep your exclamation points under control. Check.

• No. 7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly. Shackelford resists this temptation.

• No. 10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. The author accomplishes this moderately well.

​

Odds are, based on his first novel’s 60 percent compliance with Leonard’s rules, Shackelford is headed for greater things, provided he continues to conjure up plots like this one and sharpens his dialogue to a fine Leonard-esque edge.