After serving three tours in Afghanistan, Roy Calhoun, whose mind now often works on a sixth grade level, comes home to Jacksonville, Florida to try and live a normal life, which is difficult to do with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
This new novel tells the story of a veteran returning home from the war. After serving three tours in Afghanistan, Roy Calhoun, whose mind now often works on a sixth-grade level, comes home to Jacksonville, Florida to try and live a normal life, which is difficult to do with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He is fortunate enough to be introduced to a psychologist named Parker Boyce, who not only treats him with therapy but befriends him as well. He takes Roy into his upscale home in an affluent neighborhood of the 1% and treats him like he is a part of the family, even hiring him as caretaker and helping him start classes at the local community college. Parker Boyce's wife has a younger sister, Roberta, who comes to visit and a romance begins to develop between Roberta and Roy. She convinces him to attend some of the Occupy Wall Street protests that are going on in major cities all over the country. With help from his Xanax prescription, Roy attends rallies with Roberta, although he never really seems to understand the 1% vs. 99% confrontations that take place. He spends very little time having Afghanistan flashbacks and is able to function well with therapy and medicine, until a moment comes one day when he loses control and shows a side of himself he has tried to keep hidden.
Excerpt
But Kimberly was okay. A nice man with a reddish colored face and kind of fat had found her walking down the street earlier that morning and had offered to take her to the Dairy Queen for a treat before he took her back home. She had climbed out of her bedroom window to try and find the bunny nest early that morning. She had wandered all over the back yard before she finally saw the mommy bunny hopping across through the open back gate into the neighbor’s yard and, of course, she followed. She had to find the nest and see the baby bunnies. She had done this before in the mornings before her parents woke up. She never got scared. She felt real safe. Now she sat in the passenger side of a pick up truck and this man was taking her for an ice cream cone. When she showed him the house where she lived, the man told her he knew her Dad and that he was there to do some work for him this morning, but he did have time for a quick run to the DQ if she was interested.
When Roy had first seen the girl walking down the street in front of him, it looked like she was walking down a narrow dirt road, a two-lane road of sand. He thought he saw her wearing a brown burka and a dark flowing robe. He was back in Afghanistan in his Humvee, on patrol. And the girl needed his help. It looked like she was carrying a small package. He thought she could be bringing some food back home to her family from the market. Or, he knew from his training, it could be an explosive device of some sort. He had driven his humvee slowly behind the girl, watching her closely. Suddenly, he knew he wasn’t really there at all, although for a moment he had been.
Roy drove his truck out of the neighborhood and down on to Roosevelt Boulevard. He had passed a Dairy Queen on his way to the pharmacy earlier, hopefully it was open now. He went in to get her the ice cream cone, making the girl wait in the truck. Kimberly was very excited about the ice cream so she sat very still while he went in to buy it.
Now he had to go back over to the pharmacy and get his meds. “So, you want to run over to the drug store with me? Or you want to go back home?” His face looked friendly.
“I’ll go with you. But do I have the wait in the car? I love going into the store with my Mom when she goes there.”
“Tell you what. You wait in the car and I’ll buy you a surprise. Then we’ll go back to your house and you can show your Mom and Dad.”
“Okay,” Kimberly said happily.
Professional Reviews
Indie Book Reviewers
Colored Floodlights reviewed by IndieBookReviewers October 2012
"Colored Floodlights” was an intriguing and engaging novel that covered a wide span of interesting events. From the war, to the Wall Street protests, to a carjacking, a shooting, a marriage in shambles, and even a house fire, there was always something happening that kept me glued to my Kindle. I was never bored and thought the story was easy to get lost in. The characters felt authentic and the dialogue believable. It is told in the third person omniscient POV so we see different character’s perspectives as the story unravels. Although I thought the beginning was a tad slow, once I got into the story I couldn’t put it down. (5 stars).
Goodreads
I read this book in one sitting! It was easy to read and filled with action. The main character, Parker, is a psychologist who lives with his wife, Katrina, in Florida. She starts cheating on him with a policeman, and meanwhile Parker starts treating a patient named Roy who is unbalanced because he suffers from PTSD from fighting in the war. There are a lot of “life” plots in here, and a lot happens to keep it interesting. I like the authors writing style and thought it was easy to read. I’d definitely read more from Mr. Drury in the future.
Reviewed by Stacy on Goodreads
Kirkus Review
“While there are some action-packed scenes, this is a character-driven novel. The engaging writing style and the shifts in point of view mean the book flows swiftly along.”
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