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(More customer reviews)It is difficult to imagine a more adversarial relationship than that which begins THE TOOTHACHE TREE, by Jack Galloway. In this thoroughly satisfying read, 15 year-old Ham Caine is kidnapped, bound, gagged, stuffed into a cotton sack, then hauled off to deep, foreboding, Texas woods to be held for ransom. His kidnapper maintains a gruff, stern demeanor while the boy hopes for some way to kill him. Plans for ransoming take an immediate tumble when the boy divulges that his parents are somewhere in the South Pacific on a self-indulgent sailboat cruise, forcing a more prolonged togetherness there in those sweltering woods than the kidnapper had anticipated. In short order, the real characters of the pair are revealed-the boy is desperate for a caring, loving father, but no wimp himself. A lot more soft-hearted than a kidnapper ought to be, the man-dubbed "Bill," after a Teddy bear the boy once had-finds in that spunky kid something that had been missing in his life: a son. A one-time loser, matrimonially, he had long been aware of that basic, masculine need, but he never allowed himself to think about it. To no one's surprise, the pair form a quick bond-however unlikely, under the circumstances-there in those beautiful but tough, unyielding woods. It's almost as though there is too much to enjoy in their newfound relationship, and too little time to enjoy it, to maintain the original hostility. The kidnapper-a private pilot who once flew for the company headed by the boy's greedy, power-hungry father-is a natural teacher, delighting in enlightening the kid about the woods, about nature, and about life. The boy, no longer a captive, loves every minute of it, rejoicing in the discovery of a freedom and a sense of personal joy and companionship that he had never even imagined. The forest puts on an entrancing show: on a morning squirrel hunt, to provide breakfast, a ground fog rises up to become an "awesome" pink cloud in the trees above the pair, while squirrels gambol from limb to limb like will-o-the-wisps as man and boy begin quietly to enjoy each other. On a trek down the tree-arbored creek, they discover fresh cougar tracks in the sand. A poisonous snake dangles from a tree directly in their path. Coyotes, and wolves howl at night. The kid learns much of woodcraft, while the man learns the joys of having a son. There is badminton on a makeshift court beneath the trees, and skinny-dipping in the icy creek. And soap that floats. All the while, a skillful, clever FBI agent is doggedly determined to discover and capture the kidnapper; and a mother and father almost too easy to hate are more concerned about their appearance at a press conference on their return from the South Seas than for the safety of their only son. The son would be happy if they never returned. But fate is fickle, and for all the joy the idyll brings to the man and boy, things get pretty rough there in those Texas woods-dishing up a major helping of nerve-tingling action and edge-of-your-chair suspense. Twice. This book just won't let go of you. The major characters in THE TOOTHACHE TREE are fully developed, and abetted by a handful of delightful minor ones as well-including a pair of conniving Indians and a rollickingly dim-witted deputy sheriff. With all of the entertainment and joy of discovery the book provides, it is the heart-warming relationship between the kidnapper and his captive that carried this first novel of promising author Jack Galloway to the top of my must-read-it-again list.
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