Brief

Renowned psychiatrist, Harley Swan, is on the run with an unlikely friend as they work to escape the misguided efforts of an obsessive cop out to catch them both red handed.

What We Liked

- The story of Harley Swan is bookended by tragedy and misfortune, but somewhere in the middle is a great friendship is formed;
- For a episodic thriller/dramedy this story would have ample time to build and run its course. There are plenty of B and C narratives that all fit into a messy matrix of connections that the antagonist, an obsessive detective with an ax to grind, will relish in teasing out over the course of a few well-paced seasons;
- Untrustworthy Narrator and quirky characters;
- Uncertain/Suspenseful plot - and engaging side plots with unlikely twists.

Synopsis

Swan is an eccentric psychiatrist in a psychiatric facility. He tells us we will witness a story of betrayal and the reason he is in the facility will become clear. He tells us of his life as a professor, his daughter whom he loves and the marriage counselor whom his wife divorced him in order to marry. We meet Woody, who tells us a sad tale of his mother's death, his father's alcoholism and the eventual rape of his younger sister at the hands of his father. He explains how he tried to stop his father during the second assault, and his father fell and died. He gets twelve years for manslaughter. Woody gets out of jail and meets Swan along the way.

The marriage counselor is at a gas stop, and a crack-addict young boy shows up after driving sleeplessly to get to his foster parents and the teller serving both of them at the gas station mini mart is Woody's Uncle, who previously ran off with his money. The boy tries to rob Woody's uncle, a scuffle takes place and Woody's uncle kills the marriage counselor by accident--so the young boy kills Woody's uncle--then the young boy drives off like a maniac and drives his car straight off the side of a cliff. Now a detective is brought in to solve the mess, and the odd connections lead him to Swan and Woody. They both feel pressure to run, so Swan decides they should join a traveling circus. They secure money for themselves and the protagonist's daughter and they hit the road, impressing the circus leader and getting taken in by the carnies.

All goes well, and the two protagonists form intimate relationships with two of the circus members. All is going well until Swan exposes his identity partially while saving a choking man at a diner. The circus leader finds out, the newspaper is printing headlines about a circus doctor savior and meanwhile Swan's ex-wife helps the detective find out that they are on the run with the circus. A meet-up and chase ensue, but the detective shoots out their tires and arrests them both.

Woody hangs himself in a jail cell and Swan ends up in a psychiatric ward. Jump ahead to the present and it turns out the protagonist has been in the psychiatric ward the whole time. His family was killed while he was away at camp and no one claimed him, so he went to the foster system and then ended up in the ward.

We find out none of the stories are actually real and instead they are all delusions of his multiple personalities.

About The Author

Robert Jaxx is an attorney and author from Michigan. He lives in the Midwest with his wife and daughters. His novels include the newly released, Swan, an eclectic tale of one man's journey through hell, and Sunset House, released in 2017. He is currently at work on a new novel titled, The Cracked.