Out Of Body is an offbeat suspense novel with a metaphysical twist. The protaganist (or possibly the antihero) is Denton, a man who frequently has blackouts in which he leaves his body. As the story begins, Denton (who narrates the tale) has just been released from prison for a crime he believes he never committed. Because of his unusual state of mind, the reader does not completely trust Denton's claim of innocence. After all, if he doesn't always know where he is, he may have done anything. Denton is surrounded by people who are, if not hostile towards him, at least suspicious. He stays with his brother Elliot and his wife Mimi, whose marital difficulties are even further strained by Denton's arrival. Denton gets a job and becomes romantically involved with the bosses' daughter. When it turns out his new love interest has a checkered past, and a violently jealous fiancee, things quickly turn dangerous for the recently parolled Denton. To add to the complexity, one of Denton's cell mates has escaped and is looking for help. Denton seems destined to find trouble, and neither we nor he are surprised when he is suspected of another violent crime. One of the novel's strongest features is the way it captures Denton's frightening states of dissociation. We are swept along, forced to share his condition, as he is propelled out of one scene into another without any memory of the dots connecting. Author Thomas Baum inserts a powerful psychological theme here as well --at an early age, Denton may have witnessed his own father's suicide. Suspense, psychology and the supernatural are combined in an original way to make this a compellingly unique novel.

Having the experience of out-of-body travel, controlled or not, must be a truly awsome experience. Baum keeps the reader caught up in that place where reality ends and a book begins. He allows readers to get confused with Denton, who finds himself in the odd place somewhere near the ceiling or just below the floorboards, hovering about in his cell or peering into his brother's bedroom. The fact that Denton isn't certain of where he is keeps the reader wanting to know more than the character. The next time you drive to work and don't remember the drive, you have entered into Thomas Baum's world of confusion. It's an enticing place to be. Read it, you'll see what I mean.

So based on where you can see I'm from, the reasons for my picking up this book are probably obvious. Especially when you add in the fact that I am an amateur jazz musician/enthusiast. But moreover I am a lover of good literature and that is where I was impressed by this book. I really dug the changing first person perspective from chapter to chapter, it was very cool to get inside the heads of so many different characters. The interwoven tale really pulled me in and made this book hard to put down. The biggest drawback I found was that the editing seemed a little bit shabby and I found many obvious typos--occasionally things needed a bit of deciphering. It was tempting to mark my copy up with red ink and send it back to the publisher. Perhaps if there is a 2nd edition of this book some of these will be fixed. Anyway, don't let the typos scare you away, this is truly a pleasure to read both from the perspective of a "local" and from the perspective of an avid reader.

It is great book as are all of Haynes manuals. It is informative and very well written. The directions are easy to follow and thought out. Well worth the Money!