Buy Link Will Be Added Soon

Skulls & Roses: An Epic of the Road Inspired by the Music of the Grateful Dead

By: Sea Gudinski
Publisher: Art Of Telling Publications
Publication Date: TBD
ISBN: 978-1734844757
Reviewed by: Lily Andrews
Review Date: August 1, 2023

Skulls & Roses: An Epic of the Road Inspired by the Music of the Grateful Dead by Sea Gudinski offers a deeply emotional account of a man who, for the last fifty years, has been everywhere and done everything, but leaves nothing behind apart from blood trails, peril, and heartbreaking memories.

The protagonist, Jack Jones, is revealed to be getting pretty bored of traveling all the time. He hasn’t had a permanent address in over five years and has already been just about everywhere east of the Pacific and west of the Mississippi, all the way from Minneapolis to San Diego and Seattle down to Houston where he engaged in a few laboring jobs such as painting, grave digging, sales, and occasional gambling.

The year is 1925 when Jones decides to move to the bustling Oklahoma oil boomtown of Tulsa. It is in Tulsa where, when looking for a low-stakes poker, he meets the head of the Tulsa bootleg ring, Joe McDunlop, and his Irish friend Shannon Todd. McDunlop offers Jones a lucrative opportunity that can have him put his hands on a couple of thousand tax-free dollar bills in a short time, as long as he doesn't mind staying up late nights and 'shirking' the law.

Luck seemed to be on Jones's side a few days earlier when he came across Bertha, a young lady of about seventeen whose plump, red lips, and bright eyes depicted the striking silhouette of a charming goddess. He fell in love with her immediately, but as the excitement started to kick in, he learned that her father, Steele, was the city's sheriff. Steele was very aware of what went on in "his town" and made it his business to learn about any new person within his municipality. Jones and Steele met at a restaurant and later again locked eyes in the streets, but the former's fondness for the Sheriff's daughter had amazingly remained unruffled. This might however not be the case after the soon-to-be son-in-law gets involved in illicit engagements that warrant imprisonment or far worse consequences.

Skulls & Roses: An Epic of the Road Inspired by the Music of the Grateful Dead tells of a protagonist who wasn't as talented as his siblings and who often found relevance in doing what was detestable. He has sat in a penitentiary, escaped from it, taken lives, and done other obnoxious works, which in the end got him more wounds and battle scars than the hair on his head. Readers will find themselves reflecting on the quality of the decisions they make in life, with the utmost realization that just as the protagonist's youthful years became bygones, so too will they sit back and reflect one day, fulfilled or disappointed at the quality of life they led when young.

It takes a special kind of book to stir up emotions in a reader, and Skulls & Roses: An Epic of the Road Inspired by the Music of the Grateful Dead is that hauntingly smart text. Throughout the story, all of the character's decisions end up horribly, and one has to keep asking themselves what they would have done if they were in his shoes. The author concludes with the following words which aptly signify a masterful conclusion with no loose ends - "I can’t say I fully regret these roads I’ve gone down, but they’ve been long and unforgiving roads, that much is for sure. Sometimes the light’s been all shining on me, other times I could barely see, and lately, it’s occurred to me what a long, strange trip it’s been..."

Quill says: If you want an emotional, gut-wrenching, and relatable story that will make you question the quality of every move you make, then you don't want to miss this one!

For more information on Skulls & Roses: An Epic of the Road Inspired by the Music of the Grateful Dead, please visit the author's website at: www.seagudinski.com/