June 2013
Capricorn’s Collapse
By Michael J. Tucker
It is June 17th, 1972, and Tom Delaney is working late at his office in the Watergate Building in Washington, D.C. When he discovers a number of men breaking into the office next to his, paranoia (born from his involvement with the mob) makes him think that the break-in is happening at the wrong office. Why would anyone want to break into the Democratic Party headquarters? Delaney was certain that they were after the money and cocaine that was stashed under his desk. As time passes he learns that the break-in was indeed targeted to the right office. The events of 1972 continue to unfold, spelling trouble for nearly everyone in the Nixon White House. Delaney, on the other hand, watches his business grow. In the middle of adding new accounts to his CPA firm, he runs into an old girlfriend and slowly rekindles their relationship. Unfortunately, one of the new deals he makes goes sour and he becomes the target of a vicious group of thugs. Everyone around him is suddenly in danger.
Michael J. Tucker, the author of “Capricorn’s Collapse”, skillfully takes us back to 1972, with talk of the Watergate Hearings, the PLO, the IRA and the unforgettable music of the day. Although nostalgic, the pace of the story is fast and accelerates toward the exciting climax. The main characters are from the seedier side of life, but we can’t help rooting for them to survive and go on. I enjoyed reading this book very much and would recommend it to anyone who likes a story that weaves fiction into a tapestry of real events.
Aquarius Falling
By Michael J. Tucker
CreateSpace, $14.95, 288 pages, Format: Trade
Star Rating: 5 out of 5
//Aquarius Falling// is a fascinating read. The story begins in 1964, a whole different era in itself. The main character, Delaney, was going to college, but as is common with young college kids, he got off on the wrong track with girls and drinking so he was booted out, and that is where the real-life learning experience begins.
He decides to head to Ocean City, where he wants to get a job and dreams of saving enough money to return to school and pay his own way, since he lost his full scholarship. Being an orphan and getting into college was a big success, but blowing it leaves Delaney with very little money, no car, and no options but to hit the pavement and live on the mercies of motorists along the road. In Ocean City, it’s not quite the busy time of year, but finding work becomes his main goal.
On his first night he runs into a girl on the boardwalk named Misty, who intrigues him. He doesn’t quite understand who she is or how their lives will become so interwoven until later in the story. Initially, he stays at a boarding house filled with some unsavory-looking characters, but he becomes friends with Jack, the leader of that group. Unfortunately, their lifestyles bring Delaney into a whole other world of trouble. Even so, he and Jack continue to be drawn to each other and become an unlikely duo. Whereas Delaney is smart yet passive and goal-oriented, Jack is the muscle type, always looking for trouble and the easy way out.
Delaney finds work and meets a nice girl named Wendy who is involved in the rights movement of that time. Delaney is enamored of all that is good in Wendy and how fun she is, but things always seem to take a turn in Delaney’s life. When he loses his job, his good buddy Jack comes to the rescue with a very unlikely plan, heading Delaney down a road of girls, money, drugs and yet more trouble.
This book features many life lessons and truths about that time in history, and the writer has captured the scene of Ocean City and the lives of his characters in such a meaningful way that the reader just ends up loving and relating to each of the characters. It’s difficult not to feel for them and their struggles and all they go through together, as well as the unique personalities and what each brings to the unlikely group that develops.
The only part that disappointed me was the ending. I definitely didn’t see it coming, and to me it seemed that there should have been something more. But maybe that means another book is on the the way to finish the story regarding Delaney and Misty.
ForeWord Clarion Review
FICTION
Aquarius Falling
Michael J. Tucker CreateSpace 978-1-4750-4212-2 Five Stars (out of Five)
The cheerful 1960s pop music that weaves its way through Aquarius Falling creates a warm, nostalgic feeling. Don’t get too comfortable, though. While the Beach Boys soundtrack promises a carefree summer for twenty-one-year-old Tom Delaney as he hits the beach in Ocean City, Maryland, a far more complicated future awaits him in Michael J. Tucker’s tightly written page- turner.
Using realistic conversations to establish his characters, Tucker introduces readers to the searchers and seekers of the sixties, like the aptly named Misty Vail, an aspiring astrologist who talks of portentous new moons while simultaneously working the streets to make ends meet. There’s also John E. “Jack” Walker, an impulsive wanderer with few plans and fewer scruples, and Wendy Morrison, the quintessential surfer girl. With each new person he meets, Delaney faces decisions about how he wants to live his life.
The learning curve for the naïve former Georgetown University student is steep. Tucker paints Delaney as an orphan raised in institutions that sheltered him from independent decision making. His innocence gets him into plenty of trouble, starting with the bad planning that leads to the loss of his Georgetown scholarship.
Delaney needs the money that work in Ocean City might bring, and Tucker makes it clear through his protagonist’s two part-time jobs that he is a hard worker. Still, Delaney gives up respectable hotel work to participate in one illegal money-making scheme after another, each more risky than the last. Delaney shows just enough introspection to indicate he is learning from
his mistakes, but not enough to keep him from danger. Readers may find themselves mentally urging him to change direction as his life spirals out of control and into a world of prostitution, drug deals, and Mafia bosses.
Delaney’s loss of innocence plays out against the backdrop of the nation’s own growing pains. The Vietnam War is causing controversy, and Delaney worries about the draft. Civil rights demonstrations turn to riots at nearby Maryland State University, and Delaney witnesses discrimination in practice as black families are turned away from beachfront restaurants and hotels. These larger issues echo the ethical struggles in Delaney’s own life.
Tucker’s dialogue flows easily throughout the novel, wasting little time on unnecessary attributions or long-winded explanations. The characters talk like real people, and their personalities come to life through their words. The quick exchanges enhance the already brisk pace of action in the story as Tucker turns up the tension in each subsequent scene. How Delaney will reconcile his relationships with his newfound friends, as well as what direction he will take at the end of the summer, remains a mystery to the very end, and perhaps beyond. Tucker is at work on a sequel.
Sheila M. Trask
Genre: Historical Fiction
Title: Aquarius Falling
Author: Michael J. Tucker
This book follows the very tumultuous summer a certain Tom Delaney spends in Ocean City, Maryland. That summer is in 1964, which was itself a tumultuous time, particularly in the aforementioned locale. Protagonist Delaney, as he prefers to be called, has his own problems, which only occasionally intersect with the Civil Rights struggles of that decade, and the ugly riots which broke out in the beachside city in the summer of ’64.
The reader is dropped into the middle of an already-unfolding tale, that of the orphan Delaney, recipient of a scholarship to an excellent college, has a bad turn of luck. The seemingly random encounters which follow quickly take on a feel, which is evocative of “Catcher in the Rye” in tone.
Like Holden Caufield, Tom Delaney has a lot of things happen to him which seem unimportant, but quietly build into something anything but. Author Michael J. Tucker’s writing may well have been inspired by J.D. Salinger: it’s easy to make action exciting, but to make the reader crave the ordinary scenes is far more difficult to do.
Ordinariness is also relative, however. The characters in this book, in the course of their daily routine, engage in prostitution, graft, theft, and the sale of illegal drugs. The scenes are written such that these dangerous activities feel almost humdrum, capturing Delaney’s viewpoint perfectly.
Looking back at the racial tension and shady underworld of 1960s Maryland, it’s easy to imagine how exciting, or terrifying, it must have been to live in that time and place. But history never feels extraordinary as it is unfolding, and this is what Tucker captures in “Aquarius Falling.” The reader is swept along by a fascinating tale, but the book’s main character just wants to get through the summer.
This is a book which will appeal to anyone who is fascinated by the human condition, and well worth the read.
Reviewer: Terence P Ward, Allbooks Review. www.allbooksreview.com
Title: Aquarius Falling
Author: Michael J. Tucker
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 978-1-4750-4212-2
Aquarius Falling
● From Amazon
a great read, June 24, 2012
By
Maryann Priore “map” (lomita, CA) – I just finished the book this morning and anxiously awaiting the sequel. Mike has written a well written-fast paced first novel. Well done Mike!!
● From Amazon
Wow could we relate!!!!!, June 21, 2012
By Dennis C. Widman (Tucson, Arizona) Aquarius Falling vividly portrays the 60’s scene through the eyes/actions of the main character, Tom Delaney. A path of a young guy who has blown his ticket into a broader world via a great college education.The setting is Ocean City and Assateague Island which was part of our lives and sense of place in our late teens, since we were living in the DC area then. By 1966 we were in Hawaii and then into the Army 1968-1971. Continue reading
Here is a great review of my novels, from Albert Bekus, Professor Emeritus, English Dept., Austin Peay University.
