The Great Twain Robbery

Guntrum's first novel has an engaging premise-a newly discovered manuscript by Mark Twain is stolen before it can be auctioned off-but the story bogs down in a morass of minor characters. An avid fan of Wild West novels, the financially beleaguered antihero, Henry J. Nash, a UAW worker at a N.J. Chevy plant, is facing the prospect of a strike. Learning about a forthcoming Twain auction, he decides to play Jesse James and join the action. A Texas woman claiming to be Twain's only living relative (his great-great-niece-in-law) hopes to cash in on her connection after accidentally meeting the Connecticut woman who discovered the lost manuscript in a tag-sale trunk. Scattered among the clutter of plot lines-which coalesce into a 250-page car chase in New York City during a blizzard-are the mismatched curators of a Boston museum, the head of security for an overextended insurance company, a Mafioso hit man trailing a man in debt to a loan shark, the FBI and the Marines, among others. The reader who slogs along with this cardboard cast will finally enjoy a rather unpredictable and satisfying end. (Sept.)