I got to spend some time with friends over the last few days. The Lane family, at least that's what it feels like when I get to read one of Mr. Heldt's books. Crown City is the latest of his works and it represents a couple of significant milestones: First, it completes the five book series Time Box, Second, this is the twentieth book he has written. Consequently, the twentieth title I have read by him.
Frequent readers of Mr. Heldt's work will understand when I say that completing one of his series is a bittersweet experience. This author is adept at drawing readers into the story so well that the characters experiences feel like our own. I am sad that a particular story line concludes and then am intrigued by what may be coming next. Crown City is certainly a shining example of this ability.
Having read all of Heldt's work over the last several years, I have had the pleasure of watching his evolution as a story teller. On a personal note I have often been pleasantly surprised when stories or parts of stories are set in geographic areas familiar to me. I happen to live in the area parts of the Northwest Passage series is set, only four miles from the setting of one of the books. Crown City is set in Coronado California, near San Diego. I grew up in North San Diego County during the time frame of this book. Yeah, I know, so did a few million other people, but it's still cool.
As all the storylines converge and resolve, Crown City gives us family in flux, not unreasonable for a family that has been present for two presidential assassinations, the entry of the U.S. into WWII and having to adapt to several different American cultures based on the different time periods they visit.
As is the case with the rest of the series, Crown City focuses mostly one one family member. Others are not ignored by any stretch but in this case fourteen-year-old Ashley is given center stage. Heldt does an admirable job of portraying teen-angst and youthful rebellion. Ashley is a well developed real character, as are all of his characters. She has strengths and weaknesses and some of those weaknesses cause real problems.
The focus of the whole series has been the Lane family's trek through time trying avoid the contract killer pursuing them to kill the family and retrieve the time boxes they absconded with to prevent an unscrupulous ceo from using for illicit purposes. This is where I see the growth of Mr. Heldt's talent, The Time Box series was to my mind darker and more violent than his other work. Not overly dark or extremely graphicly violent by any means. I still walk away feeling good, but we do see a new side of Mr. Heldt's repertoire, demonstrating his ability to avoid falling into formulae, keeping his work new and fresh.
Readers of my reviews know I don't spend a lot of time rehashing the storyline in my reviews. I leave that to other reviewers. I try instead to focus on what about the writing moved or didn't move me. Hopefully some readers find this approach helpful. I find that dialogue is often a weak spot for some authors. Not so for John Heldt, he is great at using dialogue to set a tone and evoke a response in the reader. With just a few lines he can make the reader feel warm and fuzzy, agitated, frustrated, fearful, heartbroken or elated.
Crown City is worthy of your time. It is a well told story part of a master-crafted series. John Heldt continues to provide solid entertainment that relies on a well told story over the literary crutches used by other authors (Foul language, graphic sex and violence, dysfunctional/disrespectful families). His stories are tight and uplifting and I recommend them highly. If you haven't yet had the pleasure of reading his work, do yourself a favor and give his work a look, you won't be disappointed! Enjoy!
Oh yeah, five stars for sure!
Mike
