{"id":10688,"date":"2023-10-30T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-30T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=10688"},"modified":"2023-10-29T19:50:19","modified_gmt":"2023-10-29T23:50:19","slug":"valley-of-refuge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=10688","title":{"rendered":"Valley of Refuge"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Valley of Refuge<\/em>, the new thriller by John Teschner, starts off like a mystery. At least it was a mystery to me, with three intriguing stories evolving at once. Social media magnate Frank Dalton is doing something Big on the Big Island of Hawai`i, a woman passenger on a Hawai`i-bound airplane has completely lost her memory and doesn\u2019t recognize the person her passport says she is, and a young Hawaiian woman, Nalani, is at risk of losing her ancestral lands, which the magnate wants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the stories move forward\u2014and especially as the memory of the woman called Janice Diaz gradually returns, these strands weave into a tightly constructed, complex plot. Because the action\u2014and Teschner packs plenty of it into the novel\u2019s seven-day timeline\u2014takes place almost exclusively in Hawai`i, you\u2019re treated to elegant descriptions of the topography and plant life, the fishing and surfing, the sunsets and weather\u2014including a cataclysmic rainstorm at the climax that will leave you feeling drenched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frank Dalton heads a company called Sokoni that dominates the social media world. Make that \u201cthe world.\u201d But for someone who amassed his fortune enabling people to make connections with each other, his project in Hawai`i is the antithesis of that. He\u2019s building a no-expense-spared refuge with the impossible goal of keeping people out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janice Diaz is whisked from the plane to a hospital then turned out on the street. No luggage. No reservations that she knows of. No friends or family. She has a phone, but doesn\u2019t remember its security code. And, someone is trying to kill her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scenes with Nalani, her mother, and her Uncle Solomon, expert in the ways of nature, contrast starkly with Dalton\u2019s artificial world. The Hawaiians are happy with their meager parcel, while Dalton\u2019s multimillion dollar estate fills him with anxiety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It takes a while for the characters\u2019 roles in the story to shape up, and Teschner uses short chapters to bounce you from one intriguing plot point to another. The pace gradually picks up steam, acquiring such strong narrative power that the last day\u2019s events rush forward like the storm itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All these characters are well realized, and I especially liked Janice Diaz, the homeless woman who helps her, Nalani, and the realtor struggling to finalize the transfer of Nalani\u2019s family\u2019s property. Naturally, it\u2019s harder to warm to Dalton, with his narcissism and conviction he can control the universe, but that portrayal is effectively drawn too. Teschner uses a fair amount of the Hawaiian language\u2014both by the Hawaiians and the whites who want to show how with-it they are\u2014but it isn\u2019t hard to follow. Context usually takes care of it, and he provides a handy glossary, just in case. It\u2019s an exciting and atmospheric read. Loved it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Valley of Refuge, the new thriller by John Teschner, starts off like a mystery. At least it was a mystery to me, with three intriguing stories evolving at once. Social media magnate Frank Dalton is doing something Big on the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Take a trip to Hawai`i, where a tech billionaire plans the ultimate retreat, if only everyone else would just cooperate and stop trying to kill him.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52,1288,40,126,32],"tags":[2132,2131],"class_list":["post-10688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-culture","category-fiction","category-reading-2","category-thriller","tag-john-teschner","tag-valley-of-refuge"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2Mo","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10688"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10690,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10688\/revisions\/10690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}