“A Perfect Storm of Genres”: A Review of Thunder Road, by Colin Holmes
(Brentwood, TN: CamCat Books, 2021). ISBN: 9780744304947 Every so often—and it is, as it should be, very rare—I read a book for review and think, “If only there were six stars in the rating system, instead of five…” So imagine my surprise when I realized that this is the author’s debut novel. It is admittedly a perfect storm for me, as a reader, paranormal researcher and experiencer, and a creative. It combines the gumshoe detective genre of the 1940s with the birth of Las Vegas and UFOs. Those are some rich ingredients for a novel, and Holmes combines them like a master pastry chef into a true guilty pleasure. The novel opens in June 1947, at the time of the fabled Roswell, New Mexico UFO incident. As that craft is (crash) landing, a livestock agent/special ranger named Jefferson Sharp witnesses a similar event in Texas. This is a multilayered inciting incident, not only kicking off the central narrative of the mystery of the UFO sightings, but delivering a trip...