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by Tony Delgrosso Mr. Abernathy

A serialized novel, updating fortnightly.

In 1944, Willy Horvitz was a brilliant young physicist. Fervently anti-Nazi, he was coerced into leading a research and development effort to design and build a revolutionary new aircraft to turn the tide of the war. Adopted as an orphaned American boy by a wealthy German industrialist, Willy was haunted throughout his life by the tragic loss of his mother. The kind of loss he hoped wouldn’t be repeated if it were revealed by his blackmailer that the love of his life was a Jew.

In 2008, Parker Dundee is a brilliant but unhappy young professor. While sifting through the possessions of his recently deceased father, Parker makes an unsettling discovery: his father was far more than the mid-level State Department bureaucrat he always portrayed himself to be. The deeper Parker gets into the labyrinth of his father’s secret life, the more attention he draws from sinister quarters.

Tying them together is the elusive “Mr. Abernathy”, a man known only through enigmatic references in scattered documents and journals spanning more than 100 years. His identity and secrets are of intense interest to both the CIA and a mysterious band of men known only as The Jonses.

Determined to know who his father really was, Parker realizes he must first solve a larger and far more dangerous puzzle: who was Mr. Abernathy?

Mr. Abernathy
— contains some harsh language —

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Editorial Reviews

Nazis and Secretive Documents

October 10, 2008by Morgan O'Friel

As a head’s up: this site currently only has two chapters available. This review is subject to change as more of the work is released. Now, onto the review.

Both the website and the PDF files are very professional — they come off as concise, evocative, and moody, which is also the general feel of the prose. The PDF downloads quickly, as well as being easy to save to a reader’s desktop if they have limited internet time. The text is easy on the eye, as well. The only downside is that leaving feedback is difficult, since the work is, in fact, a PDF file. After a bit of exploration, however, I’m giving the site and text design a 4.5/5.

When it comes to the story, there are plenty of disparate characters and point-of-views being offered. Already a few have started to come together, and I well expect that the following chapters will bring more light onto the prologue and other connections. That said, the jumps between characters were well-coordinated, and rarely did I feel out of place for very long.

The story is concise, professional, and dripping with potential. I found myself floating through the prose, searching everything for a connection, and eating up Parker’s voice. One of my favorite parts of the prose, at the moment, is that it has a tendency to end each chapter with an ‘aha’ moment, where it brings several separate characters/sections together to reveal a larger whole.

Unfortunately, at the moment it reads more like a piece of literary fiction than the science fiction it has been labeled as. There have been some hints and a few ’strange’ things, but on the Morgan 1-10 (mundane-weirdest) scale of weird stuff, it rates about a two. I was hoping for a bit more by the second chapter, since it doesn’t have many chapters in the whole piece. Unfortunately, it still reads as though it’s setting up a larger reveal – I’m just hoping it happens soon.

Another problem is that certain passages contain a decent amount of fly-boy and scientific terminology. Nothing overwhelming, but enough to make me start skimming passages. It’s possible that I’m not the audience for this piece, since I’m not up on military lingo. It’s not too big of a deal, since these tidbits add to the realism of the story, but if you’re not the audience for them, they’re enough to throw a reader out of the flow of the story.

Weighing all the pros and cons, I’d give the storyline a 4/5. Not exactly a light read, but intriguing all the same. Definitely well-done, to be sure, but it’s still missing a certain zing.

Over-all, the site, prose, and intrigue presented are enough to make this work’s general rating a 4/5.