Bit of a long shot.....could anyone tell me the name of the book or the author

20 years ago my husband read a book whilst he was travelling. He cannot remember the name of the book or the author and despite describing the book to several bookstores over the years he has drawn a blank.

It starts off with the hero of the story sitting in a traffic jam and a woman mysteriously appears in front of his car. My husband thinks that she was an angel and she needed to be protected. Things that happen in the story are:-
1. Whenever our hero fights he blacks out and when he comes around all the villians are usually dead or in very bad shape.
2. He enlists the help of his mate (a mechanic), who is also super hard.
3. The bad guy who is chasing the angel (?) can appear mysteriously from anywhere that forms a corner - in one scene he appears in the back of a car that they are all travelling in. The mechanic hits the villain who is surprised by how hard he hits and how fast he is. They have a fight which ends with the mechanics death but gives our hero and the angel a chance to get away.
4. The final scene is where our hero is looking out to sea wondering if he'll ever see the angel again, when he see's a rowing boat with a woman aboard matching the angels description. The author leaves you to decide whether it's her or not.

If anyone has read this book please let me know as I'd like to buy it for him - to stop him going on about it !!

Many thanks.

I have no idea what this book is but if someone finds out, I think I want to read it!

Good luck. I have a case like that, too, but can only remember one scene and I'm sure it was a book, not a film. Nobody knows what it could be, very frustrating. Read it a looooong time ago.

I want to read it as well !

Try asking on Booksleuth, the message board for lost and forgotten books. Go to abebooks.com and go to the community forum and from there to "Booksleuth"- there are amazing literary detectives there! Good luck.

Thanks for that will try there....never even heard of booksleuth.

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Sometimes a book touches your soul for whatever reason and the feeling you had, reading the book, will stay with you forever.

[Deleted by the author on 6 May 2012 17:41:56 BDT]

[Deleted by the author on 6 May 2012 17:42:41 BDT]

Gray - it's always nice to hear the opinion of ignorant philistines

Another bit of a long shot. Can anyone give me the name of a book that is centred around people not wanting to celebrate Christmas. There is a 'group' of people that make their way to a hotel whereby Christmas must not be mentioned. I recall one of the group on making their way to the hotel gets stuck in a snow drift. Would like to read again if anyone can suggest. Many thanks.

No, but that also sounds great to me, I hate Christmas and every bah humbug that comes with it. Could have been written by me. lol

Me too Stella, hence why I loved the book !!! But would still love to know what it is called.

It's a fairly straight forward plot, so someone should remember it. :-)

I was thinking exactly the same thing, Stella. Reading B. Rolt's brief synopsis made me wish I did that every year!

But, unfortunately, I also do not know the title of the book. When someone finally tracks it down, I shall be searching out a copy!

[Deleted by the author on 27 May 2012 12:38:37 BDT]

Is this it ?

People go to hotel in Scotland to avoid Christmas, descriptions says story has supernatural aspect.

It is A m a z on . com I am afraid.

http://www.amazon.com/Edge-World-Common-Reader-Editions/dp/1888173459

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/docs/Community/BookSleuth/Archives/Unsolved/may29Page2.shtml

I think your best bet is to get in touch with your library. Librarians know such a lot about books and are always so helpful - they have helped me lots of times.

It is being reissued in the UK and is available for pre-order here: The Inn at the Edge of the World

:)

Hi there Tricia, many thanks for that, it sounds like it may be the book. Fingers crossed. Many thanks again :-)

This could well be the book. Many thanks indeed.

You're welcome, but it was K A Newton who identified the book - I just found it on the Amazon UK site. :)

Hi Tricia, did manage to order second hand of a great seller on Amazon. And yes it was the book and it arrived today. An extremely pleased person here !!!

Hi there, many thanks K A Newton it was the book I was looking for and managed to get it from a second hand seller. So a big thanks to you. Regards Brian.