In High Places [Hardcover]

Tom Morrisey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2007

A Breath From Tragedy, a Whisper from Glory For Patrick Nolan, every climb tells a story. And now maybe it's his own …. He's right at the rim, staring over the cliff's knife edge and wondering how things went wrong so quickly. It all started after arriving home from a weekend climbing trip with his father, Kevin. That's when word reached them. In a silent moment, they'd lost the person most important to them--her death raising unanswerable questions and dangerous doubts. Launching a new life in a new town to escape their pain, son and father find themselves in danger of being torn apart forever. As his father seeks a route to solace on the dangerous high face of the rock, Patrick finds a path to hope with the unlikeliest of allies--a pastor's daughter. Together they must discover the one answer that can bring Patrick and Kevin back from the brink of the precipice Sometimes There's No Place to Go But Up

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...as a suspense-filled cliffhanger ... it will keep you on the edge of your seat." -- Cindy Crosby, faithfulreader.com

"I'm extraordinarily impressed. This is easily Morrissey's best work, and now I'm truly interested to see what he does next." -- Tim Frankovich, christianfictionreview.com

"In High Places is a wonderfully written story full of colorful imagery, and realistic characters." -- Laura V. Hilton, faithwebbin.net

"Morrisey's experiences as a travel-adventure writer make this a page turner, one that will leave you stunned." -- Heather Ivester, christianwomenonline.net

"This book would make a great gift for Father's Day or to a teenage or college-age boy." -- Tyler R. Tichelaar, readerviews.com

"I recommend this book to anyone who loves a detail-rich story with plot depth." -- Alyssa Curry, Christian Book Previews.com

"Morrisey paints a more realistic picture than many Christians novels, making it a more satisfying read..." -- Randy Brandt, contend4thefaith.org

About the Author

Tom Morrisey is the author of four novels and short stories, a world-renowned adventure-travel writer whose work has appeared in Outside, Sport Diver (where he serves as Executive Editor) and other leading magazines. He holds an MA in English Language and Literature from the University of Toledo and an MFA in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Bethany House (March 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764203460
• ISBN-13: 978-0764203466
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,391,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars An excellent wordsmith, but two major problems..., December 2, 2008

By 

listener (Lexington, KY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In High Places (Paperback)

I was looking forward to reading this book with high expectations, and it certainly delivered with Morrisey's excellent writing ability. He gives just the right amount of description to make you feel like you are there with realistic characters and actions without dragging down the story.

Some Christian themes do appear in this story, but it certainly is not preachy or heavy-handed. Far from it. They feel very realistic and natural in the story. However, as a Christian, I had two major problems with this book, and I will try to briefly describe them in a generic way so as to try not to spoil the plot:

1) There is a point in the story where we seemingly witness a character become a Christian and is baptized. However, it appears that this person's decision is due to wanting to please another person rather than this person's understanding of their stance and relationship with God. I was hoping this would be addressed later in the book, but it did not seem to be, and the book left me with the feeling that this was still considered a true salvation experience although I would have guessed it was not.

2) The word "hope" is a tricky word in modern English. It often means "hope so, but not for sure" in common usage, but the word translated "hope" in the Bible has the meaning of "confident expectation". With the Christian themes in this book, I was disappointed to see "hope" expressed as the former rather than the latter.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In High Places is my personal pick for best book of the year., May 9, 2007

By 

Christian Review of Books - See all my reviews

This review is from: In High Places (Hardcover)

Review by David White

In High Places is not an average coming of age story. It's a story of continued hope and faith made real by the fact that even years later the narrator continues to struggle with those events.

Set against the backdrop of the beautiful Seneca Rocks in West Virginia in 1976, we're introduced to our main character, Patrick, and his father as they climb. At first it seems like an adventure story, giving an intimate account of what it's like to be a climber. In High Places does indeed give its readers an in-depth look into the life of a climber, sharing the experience with unexpected clarity and honesty.

The death, an apparent suicide, of Patrick's mother causes Patrick's father to move from their home in Ohio to Seneca permanently, where they set up a small climbing shop and can escape their pain. Of course, their loss follows them, and while Patrick's father only finds solace by making terrifying solo climbs, Patrick is befriended by the beautiful Rachel who helps him make a new life for himself.

Of course, Rachel is not any beautiful girl; she's a pastor's daughter, and religious folks have always been viewed with skepticism in Patrick's family. His infatuation brings him back to church week after week with even more frequent visits to her house. Patrick's conversion is not miraculous. If anything, it is accidental. It's his father's reaction that is of Patrick's greatest concern.

Revelations about Patrick's mother's death, and the faith she apparently came to just before it, brings about two major shifts in the novel. While both draw Rachel and Patrick closer together, they also bring unexpected consequences. If anything, In High Places is about such consequences. These revelations and Patrick's actions in response to them pushes Patrick's father from a kind of reckless sadness to anger, and then, perhaps, to hope.

But actions have consequences, not only for Patrick's father but for Patrick and Rachel as well. Once their relationship reaches its climax, it's never quite the same again, and apparently neither is Patrick. But In High Places is a book about hope above all else. There is hope for Patrick, Rachel, and, most of all, for Patrick's father.

This book is one that will cause conflict in the reader's emotions; it will make him question what happens as surely as if it were his own life. From a personal standpoint, I thought that this book held an attraction for me because it took place only fifty miles or so from where I grew up, but now I know that Tom Morrisey's writing, with its honesty and liveliness, is what made it truly gripping. In High Places is my personal pick for best book of the year.

In High Places shows so clearly that there is no hope without fear of disappointment. As Rachel once points out, movies have a tendency to make people think that things turn out as they should regardless of the actions of the characters. This is a trap into which In High Places never falls, but there is always hope.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I can't wait to see what he has next., June 6, 2007

By 

FaithfulReader.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In High Places (Hardcover)

Tom Morrisey's best novel to date, IN HIGH PLACES, cost me a good night's sleep and a set of chewed-off fingernails. As a young boy's coming-of-age story, it is superb; as a suspense-filled cliffhanger (pardon the pun), it will keep you on the edge of your seat. I found I couldn't put it down until the very last page.

In several previous novels such as YUCATAN DEEP and DEEP BLUE, Morrisey (executive editor of Sport Diver magazine) took readers under the water in scuba thrillers. This time, he takes the adventures topside. Morrisey poignantly unfolds the first-person story of Patrick Nolan, a 16-year-old rock climber who returns from a father-and-son climbing trip to his home in Toledo to discover his mother's apparent suicide. Patrick and his dad leave Toledo to open a climbing shop in West Virginia, where Patrick must grow up fast in matters of family, faith and love.

Morrisey has always been a good adventure writer (his work has appeared in the adventurer's Bible --- Outside magazine --- as well as other publications). What sets this book apart from Morrisey's previous efforts is the appealing first-person point of view, strong, tight editing, refusal to succumb to clichés and lovely prose. His chapters begin and end so compellingly, you can't help but turn the pages.

The opening lines are especially beautiful, almost poetic:

"It was not the rock --- it was never the rock; it was the air. Air: gusts and threads of it, rustling my hair at the edge of my faded red rugby shirt collar. Air: swaying the thin red climbing rope that dropped beneath me in a single, brief, pendulous loop. Air all around me and above me and behind me, open and empty and unsubstantial, drying the sweat on my dread-paled, beardless face, an entire sea of air, an ocean of it, lying vacantly beneath my jutting, quaking heels."

If you're not a climber (like me) you'll struggle a bit with the plethora of gear, technical terms and climbing lingo. The epigrams of gear drawings and their uses at the beginning of each chapter lend insight, but most non-climbers will skim some of the climbing jargon as they read. For climbers, however, this might well be the meat of the book. Even non-climbers though will enjoy some of the catchy names of various rock face climbs ("Ye Gods and Little Fishes," "Thin Man") and glimpses into a world that us vertically-challenged folks may never explore.

One of the final and succinct but devastating scenes of the novel takes place at K2, a climbing venue I had just read about in detail in the fascinating THREE CUPS OF TEA. Morrisey's book will remind readers of a very abbreviated version of Jon Krakauer's INTO THIN AIR, with all the attendant disasters that climbing can bring.

I think I'd know a Morrisey novel anywhere by the inclusion of at least one character wearing Ray Bans (does he get endorsement credit for this from the company?), although he's much more restrained about brand names in this novel than in previous ones. Most impressively, Morrisey eschews the easy Christian fiction ending without eschewing faith. This is not one of those happily-ever-after tales; there are no assurances that right choices have been made. Unlike some previous books, where Morrisey tended to be a little preachy, he strikes a good balance of faith themes with reality. Choices, after all, have consequences. And there are regrets when we make the wrong ones and our lives turn out differently than we expected. But, as he writes in the final scene, "Sometimes, hope is all we have. And sometimes, hope is enough."

Morrisey has taken a giant step forward with this novel. I can't wait to see what he has next.

--- Reviewed by Cindy Crosby