PULLING OUT THE STOPS

Pulling Out the Stops is a satire on academia: an English professor on sabbatical in Europe is recruited to shadow a major donor who has jumped ship on an alumni cruise. His disappearance sets off alarm bells for the head of the University Foundation, and the town's mayor, who is determined to get a piece of the cash cow. Seizing the opportunity to avoid working on the novel he needs for tenure, Ben pursues the AWOL fat-cat through France, but soon discovers that he's not alone on the hunt. Along the way, he encounters an artist on the Robert Louis Stevenson Trail, where the donor meets his destiny. When his quest goes awry, Ben is forced to work on his story about the Hubble Telescope, in which an engineer provides a workaround for the images compromised by focus problems. When Ben is confronted by his nemesis (Q), a world famous novelist who he meets in Portugal, he finally realizes that the real story about his encounter with the elusive donor is more compelling that his attempt to write a thriller. The interplay among these tall tales provides the thrust for a fast-paced novel of suspense, humor, and travel. Far from being a piece of regional fiction, Pulling Out the Stops aims to escape earth's gravity to achieve levity.