Sunday, October 16, 2016

Book Review: The Never-Open Desert Diner by James Anderson


I haven't chosen many novels from Blogging for Books, but this one was a lot of fun. An interesting read driven by the intrigue of the characters and their lives, it's a fascinating look at life and how it is lived.

Ben Jones is hard-life trucker who ambles up and down a single stretch of Route 117 in the Utah desert. Ben lives the same life day after day, encountering quirky desert-rat characters, people running from something, even a remote-chance at love. When Ben meets Claire on an abandoned patch of the highway, he finds her playing a cello in an abandoned lonely house in the desert...naked. Their chance encounter leads to more depth and character-driven looks at life and how it can be lived, often in unexpected ways. But, one mystery eludes them the most: what really happened all those years ago at The Never-Open Desert Diner?

A fun read with interesting and vexing characters, full of fascinating intrigue.

*Note: this book was given to me by Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.