The Book Diva's Reads

There probably aren't very many people that can create a story dealing with the minutia involved with vehicle accident reconstruction and make it interesting. Thankfully Nick Arvin is an author that can take the mundane and often gruesome details of vehicle accident reconstruction and weave it deftly around the life of one man, Ellis Barstow.

Ellis, and his boss, John Boggs, travel around the country reconstructing motor vehicle accidents. It seems as if Ellis believes that by reconstructing other fatal motor vehicle accidents, he'll better understand his half-brother's death in a car accident. The story line becomes even more twisted when it is revealed that John Boggs has married the girlfriend of Ellis' deceased sibling. To make matters worse, Ellis has begun an affair with John's wife. After John learns of the affair, he threatens to kill himself and disappears. Ellis embarks on a journey to find him, by traveling to former accident sites, and along the way discovers truths about himself as well as what really happened with his brother’s fatal accident.

The Reconstructionist is a unique story that allows the reader to journey along with Ellis and witness his self-discovery or "reconstruction" of his life. Ellis learns that vehicle reconstruction is much easier than delving into the mysteries of his past as they impact on his future. The Reconstructionist is not a light or quick read, but it is a great story that provides quirky, yet all-too-real characters and their lives that grabs the reader’s attention from beginning to end.