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Kathleen Doler was raised on the coast of Northern California. She’s an award-winning author and journalist and an adventure sports addict. She writes for national newspapers and magazines on everything from business and finance to helicopter skiing, surfing and scuba diving. She also travels extensively, mostly to wild places, often while pursuing sports that have the potential to maim her. She owns a wardrobe of wetsuits and a closet full of Gor-Tex.
Reviewed by Christian Sia for Readers' Favorite
The Hook by Kathleen Doler is aptly subtitled: Surfing to Survive a Shattered Family, Drugs, Gangs and the FBI. Set in an idyllic surfing town, this book explores the depth of kinship, crime, and justice, while looking at how far a woman can go to keep her brother out of trouble. As teenagers, Shane and Dana developed an incredible bond while surfing. One has the impression that they grew up in water. Now an adult, Shane has a run-in with a ruthless drug lord who is after him, and the FBI has developed a special interest in him. Dana wants to help her brother and, as she explores the issue, she has to come face-to-face with her brother’s illegal ties to a gang and get embroiled in a war she never asked for.
Everything about this book compels the reader to read on. It includes surfing jargon that will help readers who are not used to surfing understand the experience better. The writing leaps majestically off the pages like irresistible music and begs to be read. The story itself is awesome, with just enough backstory to deepen characterization, intense action, and incredible surfing experiences. Kathleen Doler is a very gifted writer with exceptional skills in prose, plot, and setting. Few writers succeed in making the geography within which the story evolves come clearly to life as this writer does. The plot is indeed the very definition of the hook. I was hooked from the beginning by the plot lines and couldn’t stop reading as each chapter read like a promise of more incredible action to follow. The Hook is, indeed, a satisfactory read.
