Synopsis
Frank Stacy is a motion picture maker with a secret problem - a psychological flaw so subtle only his wife, famous actress Myra Mason, can even suspect it, yet this very defect makes him the hottest director to hit Hollywood in decades.Directing his films with a compulsion to detail, and personally training his actors with a style approaching hypnotism are the keys to Frank's success, but not the reason.Suddenly an accident causes Frank to lose his memory for three days. During that time he takes on the memories of someone else. But memories from where? It is proposed and accepted that the trauma to his brain caused Frank Stacy, the master acting teacher, to live for three days in the role of a character he once compulsively studied. However it does not end; the character keeps coming back and the story twists into a plausible modern day RIP VAN WINKLE as Frank's lost identity awakens after twenty years.The only clue to regaining his memory is contained in a movie he made ten years earlier. A movie exploring the philosophical implications of violating a strict societal taboo; it was Frank's only box office flop.Set in 1987 Hollywood, this literary novel is a psychological suspense that explores the extremes of one man's loss of innocence and search for identity while taking the reader on a roller-coaster ride through the inner workings of the movie business. It is an intricate story-within-a-story, where the actions and relationships of characters are tied mysteriously to the past, and the reader is asked to consider allegory as well as the intrigue of interconnecting accounts.
Review
Reviewed by Arya Fomonyuy for Readers' Favorite
...And Never Coming Back by Robert Evans Wilson Jr. was definitely an unusual title for me, beginning with the suspension marks. It seemed like the author would introduce readers to a lot of mystery and emptyspaces for them to fill in. I wasn't wrong because this is one of themost engaging books in the mystery genre I have ever read. It kept myeyes riveted on its pages, utterly captivated by the depth of characterdevelopment. Frank Stacy is an enigmatic character who follows a veryunusual path. To ordinary men, even those closest to him, Frank is justan accomplished person. But there is a darkness in him that no one would come close to noticing, well-veiled by his skills. Could his success in the motion picture business be because of his commitment, exceptionalskills and keen attention to detail when it comes to training hisactors? It's not until an accident that leads to his loss of memory that readers will start trying to understand the mystery that is FrankStacy. For three days, he seems to have acquired the memory of someoneelse. Could it be a character from one of his movies? Could Frank beplaying a game, feigning loss of memory, or going outright crazy? Thestory will take readers back into Frank's earlier work and into eventsthat took place twenty years earlier to understand the darkness thatboils within this accomplished man.
...And Never Coming Back isset in Hollywood around 1987, an absorbing psychological mystery thatexplores how our past affects us. It will be surprising if Robert EvansWilson Jr. doesn't have inside knowledge about life in the moviebusiness because he writes about it with unusual clarity and confidence, allowing readers to get a feel of the kind of life throbbing within the alleys of Hollywood. The writing is exceptionally good and readers will enjoy the psychological depth of the story. I enjoyed the way theprotagonist is imagined and executed; he seems to have something of each of us, the part of us we long to forget but the part that has a verystrong hold on the way we are. Great plot, compelling characters, and aclear, powerful narrative voice are elements that readers will love inthis fantastic book.
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