The Walkaway [Hardcover]

Scott Phillips (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Picador (2000)
• ASIN: B000UINXHY
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,205,393 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Combining The Past With The Present, October 20, 2002

By 

Untouchable (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Walkaway (Hardcover)

This is an interesting, character-heavy book, which relives the past while living through a present-day upheaval. The upheaval in question revolves around Gunther Fahnstiel who has walked out of his nursing home without any of the nursing staff noticing. Naturally his family is beside themselves and are very keen to have him found again. Gunther was in the nursing home because of the steady onset of senility. He's an ex-policeman and believes that he has some urgent unfinished business to take care of, leading him through the streets of Wichita, Kansas.

The time setting switches from chapter to chapter, taking us from 1989 back to 1952. The chapters about the earlier years are all written from a third person perspective, but the person whose perspective it is coming from changes in each chapter providing very interesting insights into each character.

Through Gunther's slipping mind it becomes clear that something very important happened in 1952 that has affected Gunther and most of the other characters in the book quite deeply. Gunther is drawn back to the place it all happened thinking he has some loose ends to tie up and so, all plotlines are inevitably drawn along with him, providing a satisfying, yet somewhat wistful ending.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sophisticated 2nd novel, November 18, 2002

By 

Victor Gischler (Claremore, Oklahoma United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Walkaway (Hardcover)

After reading ICE HARVEST, I could not wait to get my hands on Phillips' next novel. If it had been another pulp yarn in the vein of his first novel, I would have been plenty satisfied. But THE WALKAWAY goes far beyond expectations. It is a sophistcated book showcasing Phillips' deft skills as an author. He expertly handles different times and points of view. The novel works as a literary achievement as well as a top-notch crime tale.

There's a lot of [stuff] to wade through out there in the book stores -- same-old-same-old cops-n-robbers plodding through the usual formulas. It was a breath of fresh air to read a novel with ambition and style.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling and dark, November 16, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Walkaway (Hardcover)

I found the Walkaway to be a compelling and dark novel about memory and crime. It's not a mystery in the conventional gumshoe sense, though at its heart it is a convincing tale about crime and the way crime dominoes into lives. Both funny and chilling, The Walkway is the Ice Harvest times two: twice the characters, twice the violence, twice the emotional significance. If you loved The Ice Harvest, you'll cherish The Walkaway.