Review: Hop Aboard for a Ride You're Not Likely to Ever Forget
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 23, 2014
I’d pretty much thought the down-home southern story had been done to a fare the well, until I received a free review copy of Marietena Zuniga’s Loreen on the Lam.Loreen Thigpen, a 41-year-old convict escapes from a women’s prison in Houston, Texas and steals a country music star’s tour bus to get back to Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee to see her mother who is dying of cancer. On the way, she encounters Tilly Davis who is running away from her abusive cop husband; Buffington Splatt, a deaf Bible salesman who is more than he appears to be; and Sister Sarah, a nun with a history. While this is a mystery, with enough violence and suspense to keep you reading, guessing, and wanting more, it is also first-rate humor, with laughs on almost every page.Zuniga has a master ear for the southern dialect without resorting to strange spelling or overuse of punctuation marks. You can hear her characters speaking as if they were sitting next to you. But, it’s not just their speech that makes them credible – she nails mannerisms with Annie Oakley accuracy.Hop aboard the tour bus for the ride of your life.