DESOLATION SOUND: A Review

A New Novel by Fraser C. Heston and Heather J. McAdams

Filmmakers Make a Great Novel

A Review By Mark McIntire

July 31, 2015 Santa Barbara, California

Duh! You’d think that someone, somewhere in the Canadian constabulary would investigate 15 detached human feet (in running shoes no less) washing up around Vancouver BC over the last 8 years. Well, you’d be wrong. Oh, the Mounties have admitted it could be a serial criminal, but they prefer the ‘forensic products of suicide’ theory. Right! Surely this comes as some consolation both to those whose feet have gone missing as well as to their family and friends. Well, that’s just not good enough for veteran filmmakers

Fraser C. Heston and Heather J. McAdams. Seeing the perfect predicate for a knurly, snarly, kinky who-dun-it, thriller they just released their novel DESOLATION SOUND in pre-order on Amazon.com. Heston and McAdams run the boutique film studio, AGAMEMNON FILMS

pumping out a number of successful independent films over the years mostly featuring Fraser’s iconic dad, Charlton Heston. Fraser, it will be recalled, directed the winsome Steven King thriller, NEEDFUL THINGS. So, the synergy between good filmmakers and good novelists should surprise no one, and no one will be disappointed by this outing from the Heston/McAdams team. 

DESOLATION SOUND teases the imagination, shatters the illogical, and entertains with the plausible. You can visualize the film version as you turn the pages. Now that’s a great novel. Since there is no official police investigation and consequently no suspects let alone convictions how do Heston and McAdams craft a novel? Creatively of course! Characters in DESOLATION SOUND seem so probable you don’t think they are fictional. Obviously, exhaustive research of the facts by McAdams, intimate personal knowledge of all things Vancouver waterways by Heston explains the vividity and veracity of heroine Liz MacDonald, an RCMP corporal and ideal target for the foot-fetish killer. Our  hero Jack Harris, rum-soaked, discredited former American police detective with just a few miles of gas left in his tank, sees the logic missed by younger minds.  There’s even a comically suspect codger rustically named Knifeblade Bob. “I know who did it…Al Qaeda!” McAdams probably wrote that line as she’s a web savvy, well-appreciated comedienne around Hollywood these days.

What grabbed me about DESOLATION SOUND is the rich grainy, woodsy, nautical tone and texture of the crime scenes (yes…I’m convinced a crime(s) has been committed). Heston is a well-known outdoorsman with his passions for fishing, sailing, and diving. Name a boat from any culture or epoch and he can tell you all you need to know about its history and trim. Just screen his scripting and direction of TREASURE ISLAND (featuring a young Christian Bale BTW) if you have any doubts. Fraser gives meticulous attention to the smallest detail in his films. It pays off as a novelist. I’ve never been to the Vancouver border waterways between Canada and the U.S. DESOLATION SOUND put it on my bucket list. After all, as Jack Harris says, “2  feet is an anomaly. 3 to 4  feet is a statistically curious. 5 to 6 feet…you have to think ‘dirty’. But 13 feet? Seriously!”

Something’s afoot…literally.

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Professor Mark McIntie (Blogs as THE MEDDLESOME PRIEST)

Author: REASON ARGUE REFUTE: Critical Thinking About Anything