Struck

Geoff Cragg is a tenured instructor in the Faculty of General Studies at
the University of Calgary in Alberta.

Struck is Geoffrey Bromhead’s first novel and the winner of the 25th
Annual Three-Day Novel-Writing Contest. Its central character is
Finnigan Heller, a clairvoyant drifter who has been struck by lightening
16 times. The story opens with a riveting description of the 16th
strike. Dr. Penelope Mason, a research scientist for Canadian
Intelligence, notices a newspaper headline about a Windsor man surviving
a lightning strike and convinces an infatuated colleague in Security
that they should track him down to discover his secret. But Heller is
already on the move. His trail leads them to Calgary—where they
discover that they aren’t the only ones in pursuit—then on to the
mountain resort town of Fairmont, B.C., where the action concludes in a
spectacular lightning flash.

Struck is an interesting blend of the romantic comedy, thriller, Gothic
genres, but it suffers from flat characters and vaguely sketched
settings. On the other hand, Bromhead possesses a gift for deadpan
comedy, particularly in relation to Heller’s clairvoyance. Struck is
an intriguing literary debut.