The Plunder Room (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: plunder room, jump drive, New Cumbria, Annie Harkin, South Carolina (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

War, secrets and father-son dynamics haunt a South Carolina family estate in Jeter's middling debut. The novel's wheelchair-bound narrator, Randol Duncan, seeks to unlock his grandfather's war chest, or Plunder Room, at the top of a steep staircase. While Randol's desire develops, present-day problems crash into the old house: his half-brother, Jerod, arrives with a gorgeous Yankee whose azure eyes dance like Fred and Ginger and who sparks frequent controversy. And while Randol and his son, Eddie, may share some laughs over family hijinks and an interest in rock music, the boy's teenage rebellion swoops from the use of guyliner to resisting his father's wish that he date a girl from school. But the big news that shocks Randol has to do with the true nature of his father's business. Add in a mysterious African-American caller and an Internet sex scandal, and you've got an overplotted tangle that builds toward a thin anticlimax. Randol is engaging enough as a narrator, but the story he tells is a letdown. (Jan.)
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Review

"The Plunder Room's characters are vivid and believable, while the sense of setting and place are beautifully rendered and true to the modern-day South. Any Deep South venue is refreshing, particularly when tour-guided by an author with John Jeter's skills. But it is the author's sardonic wit, expressed through Randol's conversations, that sparks and livens the book into a good read."--San Antonio Express-News

“Plunder's riveting conclusion asks as many questions as it answers, drawing no easy conclusions. This is a character-driven literary work, a return to an age of storytelling in the vein of fellow Southerner Walker Percy….And, even as Plunder fathoms the weighty matters of family ties, birthright and honor, its light moments are as frequent as they are poignant.”—Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

“John Jeter reels us in with his needle-sharp wit and his jump-off-the page characters. The Plunder Room is one of the most satisfying Southern yarns I’ve read in years.”—Karin Gillespie, author of Dollar Daze

"John Jeter combines family, fighting, history and honor in a story of four generations of a Southern family, told with both humor and deep-South detail. You'll enjoy the visit."--Cathy Pickens, author of Hush My Mouth   

"The southern gothic, multi-generation dysfunctional family novel marches onward in John Jeter’s debut novel, The Plunder Room.  When the novel’s not marching, it’s rolling.”--George Singleton, author of Work Shirts for Madmen

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1 edition (January 20, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312380658
• ISBN-13: 978-0312380656
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #885,221 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Long time coming, short time read...., January 27, 2009

By	Debbie Knebel "www.GoDebGo.com" (Greer, SC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have known John Jeter for a long, long time, and he always said he wanted to write a book. Well, he finally did... and it was over for me in one afternoon and two cups of coffee. What an entertaining read! John has written about several generations of a southern family, and how war, honor, money and love change them...in both good and bad directions. The characters, and how they interact, are original, yet very familiar. The dialog flows seamlessly from Old China to New Wave, and the story weaves many threads into a surprising finish. "The Plunder Room" would make a great movie - I just wish I could afford to buy the rights!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Big Thumbs Up!, January 21, 2009

By	Dutch (Nebraska) - See all my reviews

John Jeter has written a wonderfully entertaining novel about a quirky southern family and its reaction to the death of the patriarch, a colonel who gives his grown grandson the key to "the plunder room," a locked room said to contain secrets from a life overseas and in combat. Behind the crackling dialogue and beautifully drawn characters are themes of family and honor. I highly recommend this book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jeter Rocks, January 20, 2009

By	E. Rogers (Greenville, SC United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Being a big fan of John Jeter's club, The Handlebar, I was anxious to see what he had penned in hardback. What I found was a story of complex southern culture reminiscent of many of the folk ballads I'd heard performed at The Handlebar.

As explained in the first few pages, the plunder room is a locked room containing the war memorabilia belonging to the main character's Grandfather. Randol, the main character, is anxious to get into the room to explore his grandfather's keepsakes, and since his grandfather has just passed away, Randol may finally have the opportunity. The problem is that the room is located on the second floor of his home and Randol is confined to a wheel chair, so it takes him a few months to get there. But the secrets of the plunder room aren't the real story. The plunder room is actually a metaphor for the family secrets that become unveiled throughout the story on Randol's way to unlocking the room.

At times the plot seems to meander off on various side roads but in the end Jeter pulls everything together so we see all those roads merge toward the same congested intersection. The collision is inevitable but deeply satisfying as we see that nothing in the earlier chapters were extraneous. Jeter had control of the wheel all along. Writers can choose to let their characters off the hook for past indiscretions, but reality doesn't work that way and neither does Jeter. He has no intention of cutting his characters any breaks. In the end they're left to deal with the consequences of the choices they've made.