Hunting the Red Fox
It’s like listening to your grandfather spin a yarn, and just when you think he’s done, he throws in something wild that makes your jaw drop.
Awards so far
One teenage mistake, and a judge who took it personally
Hunting The Red Fox is the story of Perry Barnes, a multi-talented man who made one bad teenage mistake in the weeks leading up to his high school graduation in 1942. On a lark he "borrowed" some jewelry that wasn't technically his. The local judge took it personally and gave Perry the choice of an assignment to a newly formed Army special operations unit at the start of World War II or go to jail for 15 years. As a result, he winds up being trained by the United States government in the skills and arts of sabotage, killing, self-preservation, espionage and ultimately how to be a first-class jewel thief.
Naturally talented by birth. Trained by the Army. Honed by life.
Along the way he finds himself in the movie business in the Hollywood of the 1950's, then uses his immense physical skills in pursuit of excellence as a journeyman golfer on the PGA tour of that era with the likes of Ben Hogan, Jimmy Demaret and Arnold Palmer. Before the adventure is over Perry has stolen the world-famous Mecklenburg Diamond from a known jewel thief, worth a fortune, with the intention of returning it to the authorities for love, of all things.
A storytelling masterpiece, Hunting the Red Fox captivates with its intrigue, romance, and wit. Its greatest strength lies in the persistent doubt over whether Perry’s tales are truthful or embellished—a tension that propels readers to the final page, waiting to see which version of the story ultimately proves true.
Golf is the canvas
Golf was the moving background sideshow behind which every other happening or change of scenery would have seemed impossibly forced. Golf was the canvas. Everything else was the layered and in some cases a slathered on color scheme of details which could not survive without the canvas.
There isn’t really that much playing of golf in the book as much as the goings on around golf events. It’s not a novel about golf per se in the least.
Written for the armchair
I prefer put them in a frame of mind to grab a cocktail, sit a spell in a favorite over-sized armchair and eagerly anticipate turning the next page with a hopeful delight as to what may be coming while slightly regretting the page they just left behind.