The Prophet of Marathon by Bob Waldner

The Prophet of Marathon is an offbeat thriller about a lazy everyman from a good family bumming around in Florida. He meets a disgraced evangelist, thoroughly loses his way, and ends the book without the girl but with a new sense of purpose.

Reading this book felt like sliding down a gravel hill on a piece of cardboard. It starts off interesting, but once the initial fun wears off, it gets a little bumpy. There’s an odd sense of inevitability about the ending, probably because the author drops hints almost from the start. I couldn’t predict the exact twist, but I could see its general outline from half the book away. I wasn’t disappointed by the end, but it left me no sense of catharsis or closure.

It’s a good thing the book places inside the main character’s head because it’s hard to have any sympathy for him otherwise. He starts by blaming the government for the whole mess, which is a bit of a reach. His internal monologue is sometimes overly analytical but his actions do feel believable as he makes them. It doesn’t help that 100% of his character growth happens over a few paragraphs in the last chapter.

Despite all of the above, this isn’t a bad book. It’s well-written, with flawed but believable characters. It just felt a bit predictable and ended up not being my cup of tea.

Three swindled starts

I received a copy of this story from the author through ReadingAlley in exchange for an honest review.