The best books for time travel on lonely roads

This book, like most of Keith McCafferty’s mystery novels, makes a long, tedious drive, something I look forward to. I’m immediately drawn into the tale, as though I’m looking over the shoulder of Sean Stranahan, the story’s protagonist/private detective/fly-fisherman.

McCafferty makes it possible to be in two places at once, one where I’m in my car with my eyes on the road while the rest of me is solving a murder alongside Sean and a Montana trout stream where we occasionally stop to cast flies to rising trout.

And there are plenty of engaging characters along the way, including Sean’s fiancé Sheriff Martha Ettinger, with whom he eventually brings the killer to justice. I want to keep driving until the case is solved.

Any of Michael Connelly’s novels, particularly those with Harry Bosch as one of the lead characters, can make a long drive enjoyable.

This book features LAPD detective Renée Ballard as his co-protagonist as they hunt for the brutal killer of an entire family. I’m captivated by the gritty scenes and characters encountered as Bosch and Ballard follow their leads.

I want to connect the dots with them as I follow their progress. That process alone is enough to make time fly by and cause resentment when I must stop for gas. Connelly weaves this crime story back and forth between two points of view, creating tension and a sense that they will need each other and gripped me to the very end.

I did not expect this book to be a road trip book. But my wife said she wanted to listen to it, so we did on a long drive to and from Colorado. I was wrong. Who would have guessed that a debut novel about a chemist who becomes a 1960s star of a television cooking show would be so captivating?

Garmus does a wonderful job of making two science geeks really human and likable. It also brought a new realization of what it must have been like for women in the era in which I grew up. Her story exposed the sexism and misogyny that was part of the culture of which I was virtually oblivious. 

Mainly, it was a good story. One that I wanted to stick with. Even in the end, I wanted the story to go on.

Whether I’m reading or listening to one of James Lee Burke’s novels featuring Detective Dave Robicheaux, the main character in his gritty crime stories set in New Iberia, not far from New Orleans, I have a hard time stopping.

I’m sucked into the story as Robicheaux and his rough-and-tumble partner Clete Purcel follow leads while dealing with their own personal demons, including PTSD and alcohol addiction. They are imperfect heroes, perhaps the only kind who can deal with the sick and twisted criminals they must stop.

Even in their hostile environment, I want to join in their efforts, which means I don’t want to stop until the end.

I’d already bought the book when we decided to drive from our home in Sonoma, California, to visit friends who live in the San Juan Islands off the Washington Coast. I packed the book but also downloaded the Audible version. We started listening as we got on the road. I never opened the book.

It’s just a great story set in the time my parents were in high school and college. It was a world with which I was made familiar by their stories. The main character’s difficult early life resonates with anyone who has listened to the greatest generation talk about what it was like growing up during the Depression.

Yes, the action during the rowing was exciting, but I enjoyed the development of the characters, especially Joe Rantz, and his personal challenges and victories, more than all competition scenes.