NEUTRAL, NO BRAKES

Howard’s debut novel, based on true events, reveals memorable characters and pressing social issues in a small town.

Morley, California, is a town of “convenience stores, payday loan outfits, discount houses, and dialysis clinics,” but it’s about to get a radical makeover. In a bid to attract investors, real estate broker Monica Sampson-Smith urges her ally and sometime lover Mayor Rusty Purnell to move ahead with redevelopment. The first victim of advancing gentrification is Morley Plaza, a drab strip mall past its prime but home to quirky, lovable characters that make up an offbeat community. The novel’s short chapters follow the plaza’s inhabitants: tough but altruistic Dr. Sunita Reddy; film buff Jeremy Kelner, who’s trying to keep a video rental store afloat; Donna Hart, the owner of bookstore Pickwick’s Paperback Shack, which carries everything from William Golding’s Lord of the Flies (1954) to vintage pornography, and her self-appointed sidekick, Geoff Saboteau, a dog day care clerk whose disturbing hatred of local transients consumes him. As Howard details his cast of characters with patience, sincerity, and precision, he reveals tender moments of human connection. The novel’s most moving plotline revolves around recent ex-convict Nic Troxell, who finds himself in a co-dependent, abusive relationship with a man he met through a prison pen pal program. Nic’s attempts to escape lead him to uncover crucial information that could save Morley Plaza, but there are many gray areas in this book; Nic’s feelings, for example, remain complicated—always precariously balanced between self-preservation, explosive anger, and compassion. Whether dealing with large social issues or innermost truths, Howard keeps the various players questioning their allegiances—to lovers, friends, and politicians—and struggling to make the right choices.

An expansive, moving tale that illuminates the dangers of gentrification and the complexities of the human experience.