An alternative subtitle for this wild romantic adventure story might be: Wait Until The Hammer Comes Down. Strap in and enjoy a subtle, rolling take-off on a flight into adventure like nothing you have ever experienced before. These are the Cullen formula and magic. Just when you are comfortable with the attractive lead characters (always a strong female and strong male who bond like super-glue amid hair-raising adventures) the hammer comes down. Suddenly, all the suspense you didn't see coming crashes through your window like a big tree in a Category 5 hurricane.Martin Brown, 21, is a senior at U.C. Berkeley, on his summer vacation at home in San Diego. In Los Angeles for a job interview, he meets a gorgeous young production assistant named Chloë Setreal (also 21). Chloë guides him through the process and takes an interest in the handsome young applicant. Martin and Chloë fall madly and instantly in love that same day.Martin returns to San Diego, two hours down the coast, to await results. He keeps thinking of Chloë, wishing for any excuse to go back and see her as soon as possible. Chloë thinks likewise up the coast in L.A. With a little bad karma, their wishes come true. Right after Martin arrives back home, he gets a call from Chloë in LA. Sh's been in a car accident, is stuck in her apartment with one leg up in a cast, and desperately longs for her dashing hero Martin to come and hold her hand. Martin gallantly hops in his car and heads north, just as a tremendous Pacific Ocean storm starts to pelt Southern California coast. Thus begins a hair-raising adventure, a nightmare of epic proportions. Courageous and undaunted Martin Brown strives to make it to Los Angeles at any cost. But a normally two-hour drive turns into a Homeric Odyssey)(or Oddity) of a seeming eternity...Like most stories from John T. Cullen's movie-like imagination, this one starts out deceptively quiet, but that's the calm before the cyclone. When the hammer comes down, you'll know it. You'll be on a non-stop read, with the speedometer stuck on "blur" as you'll be so anxious to learn what happens next. That's how a real thriller should work, and this one does.Martin goes from a mild-mannered college student student to a comic book hero and an avenger in the mythological landscape of Southern California at its most ingenious extremes. Each time when you think you have finally swum ashore, be prepared - the next merciless tide in this darkly Gothic movie is already sweeping you back out to sea.Martin & Chloë's darkly (noir) romantic adventure is a yarn for lovers of Thomas Pynchon's classic novel The Crying of Lot 49 and for viewers of Martin Scorsese's classic dark comedy film After Hours. Think also of films like The Last Seduction (starring Linda Fiorentino) or National Lampoon's Vacation, or Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis in The Out-Of-Towners film. Martin & Chloë are the next couple on that classic métro ride through the night. Martin becomes Odysseus in pursuit of a nightmare secreted in the engine that drives Amerika - and the universe. It's totally donuts all the way, and you'll love it. As critics have said about The Crying of Lot 49: Martin & Chloë's love story is a bizarre, Saturnalian plunge into the underground. This is a wildly imaginative, streamlined doomsday machine that never stops for a second until the last desperate, manic breath. Martin becomes Odysseus in search of Chloë as he pursues the goddess of his dreams while she, like Penelope in Homer's immortal classic, faithfully awaits her hero in Ithaca (make that Lost Alienopolis, or call L.A. what you will).Readers of John T. Cullen's imaginative, poetic thrillers most often say three things: "I could not stop reading; I saw the movie in my head the whole time; (and) when can I read the next one by this author?" Join them, and enjoy a great adventure.