Wolf Point by Edward Falco, Unbridled Press, Denver, 2005, 256 pages.

"Once," Ed Falco writes, in describing his new novel, "while hitchhiking somewhere upstate New York, I was given a ride by a guy with a collection of swords....[T]he ride started off pleasantly enough, though the driver was a little manic and talky, as if he'd been driving a long time and was jittery—but after we were on the road awhile, the swords came out. He had a collection of them in the back seat, and he'd twist around, practically climbing out of the driver's seat, to grab one, unsheathe it, and then explain how it was designed to kill or maim, while waving it in front of my face. Almost everything else about the memory is fuzzy now, except for those swords slicing through the air while I pushed myself as far back in the passenger's seat as possible. I don't remember how the ride ended, or what happened next. But those swords made a deep impression. Hitchhiking is dangerous; anything can happen. And that's where Wolf Point starts."

Wolf Point comes out this month from Unbridled Books, the same publisher which brought out his short story collection, Sabbath Night in the Church of the Piranha in May. The world events of September 11, 2001 and the 2003 invasion of Iraq serve to ground the novel in time, but the main action takes place over several days on a road trip north from Salem, Virginia, where the 57-year old businessman Tom "T" Walker, has been exiled after the breakup of his second marriage and the disintegration of his life. He knows better than to pick up two hitchhikers, a young woman and her threatening boyfriend, but he is so isolated that any contact will be an improvement.

Categorized by the publisher as a "literary thriller", Wolf Point brings us the same quirky, sometimes menacing characters and vivid places we find in the stories. Despite the sometimes driving plot, this is a quiet book, full of contemplation by the narrator on love, regret, and redemption. It bears reading and re-reading.

--Beth Wellington in The Roanoke Times