A Deadly Exchange
by Sheryl Jane Stafford
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Writer's Showcase, iUniverse.com (San Jose, California): 2000. Trade paperback: 353 pages. ISBN-10: 0-59515-677-0 Suggested retail price: $17.95 (US) Tags: Bahamas; boats; drugs; islands; Thriller Tactical strength: [5/10] |
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Sheryl Jane Stafford's first novel, A Deadly Exchange shows a that Stafford has the potential for a long, successful writing career, which makes me wonder why she took the vanity press route. But first, the book.
Matt and Alexandra Spencer have just made their last payment on their sailboat and take the boat out on a celebratory cruise. The agency that housed the Spencers' boat has two other identical boats, and two, bottom of the totem pole, stooges have mistakenly hidden a large shipment of drugs on the Spencers' boat. Of course, the drug runners want the drugs back, more as a matter of restoring reputation than preventing loss of income. Matt and Alex sail blissfully around for a while until they discover the drugs. Knowing the drug runners will want their shipment back, Matt hides the drugs on an island. The drug runners kidnap Alex during Matt's drug burial expedition. How could the drug runners know that Matt served in Vietnam, that Alex has the spunk of Sally Field, and that they would both rather die than give up on the other.
A Deadly Exchange has good pacing and builds anticipation throughout as Matt and Alex get into increasingly deeper trouble all the way up to the very disappointing end. The Spencers keep surviving their experiences by using their own wit and outright courage in the face of unreasonable odds. In the most dire of situations at the very climax of the book, do they draw upon their wit and courage one more time to solve this ultimate, life-or-death problem? No, Stafford sends in the cavalry and they live happily ever after. She might as well have sent in the hand of God for an equally unsatisfactory ending. Sure, the cavalry can arrive, but only to clean up the mess left after the main characters have already solved the major problem. Let the characters solve their own problems and don't give them any gifts in the process. Can you imagine the final scene of an action movie where the main character, a Jackie Chan or a Mel Gibson, lets the SWAT team take out the bad guy? No, Mel Gibson, bleeding and with broken bones still takes on and eventually defeats his nemesis.
Stafford creates a very believable setting that you can easily visualize from her descriptions. Her characters don't have a lot of depth beyond their determination to survive. In fact, A Deadly Exchange would make a much better screenplay than a novel. In a novel I expect fairly deep main characters with complex personalities. In a movie, especially a suspense or action movie, you can forgive cardboard characters, because the suspense becomes the character that changes and grows.
In spite of a flawed ending, Stafford displays excellent writing skills -- especially for a first novel. She creates authentic atmosphere, believable dialogue, and a storyline that pulls the reader along at a steady, urgent pace. So why did she choose to self publish rather than shop her novel around the traditional book publishers? Perhaps she felt that she could market the book more effectively. Stafford certainly has catchy and persistent marketing. I received my review copy wrapped in deep-sea fishing net and sea shells. Every month or two, she would send me a follow-up letter in a brightly colored envelope with new details about her marketing campaign and politely asking me for my review. But a professional publishing house's marketing department would only encourage such self-promotion while making her book more accessible to the regular bookstores through establish distribution channels. A reputable imprint also adds a lot to the reputation of the author, while vanity and on-demand presses tend to bruise one's reputation. Whatever the reason, I think Stafford should shop A Deadly Exchange around Hollywood and get to work on her next novel -- or screenplay.
