Colorful Characters Abound

I was asked to review Malcolm R. Campbell’s “Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire” before publication.”

Readers who enjoy hard-bitten, wisecracking characters will surely fall in love with Jock Stewart, the main character in the new Malcolm Campbell novel, Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire. The story of the book revolves around the disappearance of the race horse, Sea of Fire, but it features a wagon load of human “horsing around” by the many colorful characters Campbell created, including Coral Snake Smith, Parker House, a preacher named Cotton Mouth and the Krispy Kreme eating police chief Kruller.

While reading the story and gathering the clues, that frequently came to light as Stewart dialogued with his own intuition, readers may find themselves having great fun picking up the puns, word plays and hilarious cloaked references to cultural and historical items. Jock Stewart is an old time newspaperman, whose “blunt force sarcasm” keeps him in hot water with his bosses, co-workers and the police. But if not for his pressing the issue, the mystery would definitely not have been resolved.

Stewart, Malcolm Campbell’s self-acknowledged alter ego, is also the author’s vehicle to decry the effects of the digital age on the craft of writing and the elegance of language. I found the book entertaining, and it might even become profitable, if I can get permission from the author to use the sermon outline he provided in chapter 13!