Cape Cod Book Reviews

"A Summer with Socrates" is a great beach book

A Summer Chase in New Suspense Novel by Cape Writer
A summer resident blesses us with his new thriller

By Walter Brooks

Whoever said this suspense novel would make a great movie was right. How about Clint Eastwood or Anthony Hopkins as Socrates or even Robin Williams as a long shot? Hillary Swank could play the girl.

Parker Lloyd is a journalist who happily is a summer resident of Brewster and writes like Michael Connelly on steroids. Parker Lloyd’s “A Summer with Socrates” wasn’t what I expected. I thought I would be transported to the Agora Marketplace on the flank of the Parthenon in 350 B.C. as a young lad picking the brain of the philosopher.

Reno 911 and then some

No, it’s not set in Athens, Greece, but in a mythical place called Athens, Nevada, outside Reno in the 21st century.

This is not a novel loaded with gratuitous sex although there is one beautiful love scene described under the moonlight at the Parthenon. This is a rare piece of literary substance with a compelling story that kept me turning the pages.

The plot revolves around an older man, nicknamed Socrates by his students, and a runaway young woman. Socrates is homeless and lives in the hills outside Reno. He built a Greek style theater to teach the Socratic method of thinking to the homeless of Reno. He has escaped a crime for twenty years. His real identity is never revealed until near the end.

Touching, heart wrenching "escaped wife" chase

The last two chapters had me agog with emotion. Women will empathize and love it. Men will be enlightened by it.A young woman has run away from her family for reasons that can’t be revealed here. Socrates saves her from being taken by the police, but the FBI is closing in on him too, so he and the girl go bicycling in the California Sierras and in Nevada, panning for gold over the summer. He shares his wealth of wisdom with her.

Her story is gradually unraveled throughout the novel. She knows only the bare facts about his life.  The opening chapters about her escape from a failed marriage to a powerful DC man is frightening and timely. I think the author got me under the skin of a "captive wife" beater than ever before.

Women will empathize and love it. Men will be enlightened by it.

Finally, Socrates is captured and a trial takes place in Reno not unlike the one in Ancient Greece in 399 B.C.

Here I am, a full-blooded, tough-minded newspaperman with tears in my eyes at the end. There’s something wrong. I’m not supposed to cry. The last two chapters had me agog with emotion. The story is great, but sad in parts.

Summer or winter, “A Summer with Socrates” is a good read. If this is Parker Lloyd’s first novel, I want more, and I want to see this one as a movie. And I like the cover—full of bright summer colors too, like Socrates' story.

You can get it on Amazon or at the Brewster Bookstore.

Read it, ladies and gentlemen.