Gum's Story [Hardcover]

Rick Turnbull (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2001

American airman sets out to avenge death of innocent Vietnamese boy at the hands of a corrupt Army officer during the Vietman War.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A Vietnam veteran is out to avenge the death of a little boy in Turnbull's ham-handed debut. Phillip Turner's long-suppressed memory of a horrifying experience he had during the war is resurrected by his chance discovery of a news article about the villainous Colonel Chu, who had brutally murdered an innocent boy nicknamed Gum. (Gum and Turner's friendship was forged when Turner gave the boy chewing gum and Gum, in turn, warned him away from diseased prostitutes.) Turner was an airman assigned to cargo planes ferrying supplies from the mainland and returning with caskets supposedly carrying the remains of American soldiers. He is now living in Georgia and happily married to a nurse he met in Vietnam, but the sudden occurrence of nightmares and trancelike recollections sets him off to seek justice for Gum's killer. Since Colonel Chu is now a wealthy man with connections in the CIA, Turner's efforts with legal institutions are thwarted, and he must take matters into his own hands. There are few surprises here and no points of originality. Anyone who cannot see immediately where the plot is going has probably been stupefied by Turnbull's prose, which dotes on banal dialogue and gratuitous sound effects (indeed, the book's first words are "CRACK! BOOM!"). Cloying, almost saccharine in places, the novel lacks believability, complexity and consistency of point of view.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A real page-turner...Turnbull has a terrific eye for detail and genuinely makes the reader care about his characters." -- Marshall Keys, PhD

"A well-paced first novel..will hold the reader's attention from beginning to end." -- The State newspaper, Columbia, S.C.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 250 pages
• Publisher: Harbor House; 1St Edition edition (October 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891799223
• ISBN-13: 978-1891799228
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,393,898 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An impressive debut novel., May 12, 2002

By 

N. L. Jerreld (Canastota, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gum's Story (Hardcover)

I found this excellent reading. Phillip Turner is haunted by the cold blooded murder of his young friend, and is driven to avenge him.

Mr. Turnbull's development of characters, with an eye to detail, kept me enthralled from beginning to end.

I can't help but wonder if the reviewer from Publisher's Weekly was reading the same novel I was?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gum's Story, December 29, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Gum's Story (Hardcover)

I enjoyed this book. Easy reading and keep me wanting more.

5.0 out of 5 stars engaging Vietnam-themed suspense story, March 5, 2002

By 

"rfloyd2" (Georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gum's Story (Hardcover)

The past rages back to a Vietnam veteran when he discovers a recent newspaper photograph of an old nemesis, a south Vietnamese general who orchestrated a drug-smuggling operation.
More important to Air Force Sgt. Phillip Turner is the remembrance that the general--now living high off his ill-gotten gains in the United States--murdered a South Vietnamese boy much loved by the sergeant.
Turner underwent extensive therapy to move beyond the incident, which has had a sometimes negative impact on his relationship with his own son.
All the anger that has been simmering in the depths of Turner's psyche erupts full force, with vivid flashbacks to 1973, when he served onc rew in a supply plane running between bases in California and near Saigon. That aircraft--unbeknownst to the sergeant at the time--also was transporting illegal drugs. The child was gunned down on an airstrip when his presence was about to lead to discovery of the cache.
Much to the despair of his wife, Turner embarks on a one-man crusade to track down the general, seeking assistance from a retired Air Force general as well as a U.S. congressman.
Turnbull, a resident of Burnettown in South Carolina, won a Georgia Writers' Association Award for a short story in 2001. He has produced here a well-paced first novel that engages the reader most fully in its war-zone settings.
A Vietnamese veteran, the author captures some impressive scdnes of Saigon and its environs. Moreover, he effectively establishes the relationship between the sergeant and the boy so that the reader can understand how deeply the protagonist feels about avening the death.
The intrigue portions of the plot--the hunt for the general--relies a bit too heavily on coincidence. Nevertheless, the narrative will hold the reader's attention from beginning to end.
The story should appeal especially to young men in high school and college who might have difficulty finding a ovel to their liking, either for pleasure reading or for making an academic report.