A View From Beyond The Path

Daniel S Kellogg

Average Rating 8/10 (1 Review)

It's during a recurring dinner date with his girlfriend, Alex, that Jerod Dahl is wrenched from his comfortable existence in Boulder, Colorado. A voice from the past compels him to revisit the lives, and love to which he had bid farewell, twenty-five years earlier. Ruth Van Buren had pulled him through his adolescence in Chicago, with a lust for life and adventure that often led them to the brink of disaster and back again. The intimacy of that bond vanishes when she unexpectedly relocates to Iowa to raise a child with Felix Dutton, a small time drug dealer and thug. It takes Jerod years to accept life without her.

A quarter century later, Felix has resurfaced in Boulder with grim news that will draw Jerod into the web of lies and tragedy that has defined the lives of Ruth and her son, Brandon. Jerod will also be obliged to re-examine his lifelong friendship with David Winslow; a prominent Chicago attorney whom Ruth believes fathered her son during a vicious rape. As the manic Brandon becomes aware of the sordid details surrounding his conception, he questions his own identity while resting his hope on the possibility that Jerod is his real father. By the time David Winslow arrives in town to quash an investigation into his past, Brandon is looking for a target. While studying on the forces and motivations that have rendered the scenario, Jerod remains one step behind in his efforts to avert the evolving catastrophe.

In this, his first novel, Daniel S. Kellogg explores the combination of circumstances and ideas that arise from youth and draft the fortunes of four. These seemingly hapless victims of childhood influences come to terms with deeds that have marked their psyches for as long. A story of redemption and reparation, A View from Beyond the Path contemplates forgiveness while magnifying responsibility for the decay of innocence.

Review by Molly Martin (310105) Rating (8/10)

Review by Molly Martin
Rating 8/10
It is Chicago 1968 when 10 year olds, Jerod and David become involved in what may prove to be a life long tussle with Ruth. By the time the boys are ready for eighth grade they are sure Ruth is someone special. Time and the years intervene, David becomes a well-known attorney, Jerod moves to Colorado, becomes VP of Operations at Good Things and begins a serious relationship with Alex. It is 2000 when Jerod glances across a crowded room to find Felix Dutton sitting at the bar. Jerod does not really expect to run into Ruth, Felix or anyone else from his past any time soon.

Before long Ruth, her son Brandon, Felix, Alex and even David are embroiled in a state of affairs Jerod never anticipated. Brandon hopes perhaps Jerod may prove to be his unknown father, Felix fumes that Jerod is once again involved with ‘his’ family.

When Felix is killed things begin to look more than a little bleak. The police question Jerod. Then David is also found dead and the cause for his death is a bit astounding for Jerod to understand.

On the pages of A View From Beyond The Path Writer Kellogg has crafted a compelling read nicely filled with entertaining characters, well defined environments and solid, hard hitting dialogue.

A View From Beyond The Path is a well written work in which a complex tale filled with potent motivations, characters filled with more their share of angst, twists, treachery and puzzling circumstances all coming together as one compelling read. Kellogg displays an perspicacious adroitness for taking mundane situations and weaving them into a real attention grabber. The reader’s interest is held fast from the opening paragraphs as we read of the two ten year old boys and their female neighbour, right down to the last lines while we read David’s letter to Ruth along with her.

Good book for a long lazy afternoon. Happy to recommend.
Molly Martin (31st January 2005)