A fictional novel based loosely on events in mid-Seventies Spain, Stephen O. Boyo’s The Marionette Adrift traverses continents and locations in a breathlessly dangerous, absorbingly dramatic work. Set between November 1974 and January 1976, Boyo focuses on the months preceding the death of the Spanish dictator General Franco.
The book’s central protagonist is 28 year-old singer Lars Brunner, who is troubled by his popularity in the world’s most lauded American rock band, X-Cult. While his bandmates enjoy the vicarious thrills of celebrity status, he is uneasy with sudden fame and exposure. During a plane flight home from touring South America, a lonely Lars is deeply affected by the disappearance of his estranged wife and recollections of his late father’s memoir of life during World War Two as a persecuted European Jew. Returning home to America, Lars fires manager Mikey Slaney for allegedly mishandling the band’s affairs but also (secretly) for his affair with the star’s beautiful wife, Annie. Sacked film producer Tim Valentino’s lawyer James McFadden advises taking legal action. When Lars finds his wife in Texas, he attempts to revive their relationship but is later arrested for her mysterious murder. Bailed to appear in court, he is advised by his best friend and bandmate, Leif Harlander, to take a break across the border in Tampico, Mexico. He unwittingly embarks on a voyage that strands him as a penniless stowaway in Las Palmas, where he meets beautiful Basque art student, Renee De Haro. Guilty about concealing his identity, their relationship deepens first in Barcelona and then in Bilbao, where Lars becomes unwillingly absorbed submerged into the dangerous world of Basque civic pride and militant terrorist activity.

The Marionette Adrift is accomplished in its attention to detail and has the feel of a socio-historical travelogue: night flights of escape, dramatic missions, proud heritage and beautiful European destinations. As death and punishment invade Lars’ world, he gradually struggles to discriminate fact from fiction amidst a blur of events. Chilling, tortuous images of violence permeate the book’s pages while bombings and blazes colour TV newsreels. Entwining romantic devotion, subterfuge and mysterious murder, The Marionette Adrift is a dynamic, literally explosive work.

THE MARIONETTE ADRIFT
Readers Respond
www.themarionetteadrift.com

Lars Brunner the central character of this book and leader of rock band the X-Cult, is at a cross roads in his life, with a successful tour behind him and his life as America’s number one rock star on the ascendant in the mid-seventies, life couldn’t have been better for him, except that his marriage to supermodel Annie has hit the rocks following her affair with the band’s manager Mikey Slaney. Lars is the son of a Jewish holocaust survivor father and Swedish mother with a disturbed childhood of his own and a terrifying childhood-discovery that has troubled him all of his teenage and adult life.

Shocked by the excesses of his bandmates and the disappearance of his estranged wife, Lars goes in search of Annie, finds her and loses her almost immediately. Annie is found dead and Lars is accused of her murder. Lars is advised by his best friend to go on an illegal trip to Mexico to rest but finds himself adrift heading instead in the opposite direction for the canary islands and Barcelona and into the arms of a rich shipping heiress with very very dark secrets....... his life takes unimagined twists and turns that end in Dante’s inferno! You need to read this to find out what happened. This is a fast paced seductive novel full of glamor, intrigue and betrayal, it reads like a thriller, historical romance and holiday travelogue all combined in one.

-By A. limited "PM" (York)