Last Flight Out

This lackluster time-travel adventure from Eringer (Motional Blur) finds the aggrieved unnamed narrator, a Santa Barbara, Calif., bar owner, in “a windowless hearing room,” which he refers to as “my own personal Auschwitz.” There he and the ex-manager of his bar are in a labor dispute that won’t be ruled on for months. Afterward, instead of driving home, he impulsively heads for the airport. En route, he stops briefly to admire the night sky, which reminds him “of the opening sequence of The Twilight Zone, my favorite television series from when I was a kid.” He catches the last flight to San Francisco, where upon landing he takes a cab to Sausalito, because the attractive woman he talked to on the plane suggested he go there. After a night in a hotel, he visits the Vintage Photo Gallery, where the hippie proprietor tells him that old photographs have magic. He’s soon transported inside one and has a conversation with its subject, Mark Twain. He returns as easily as he entered. A later photo-jump places him in a position to try to avert Hitler’s rise. Back in Sausalito, when he tells the proprietor that he was almost tortured at Auschwitz, the guy responds, “Bummer.” Rod Serling would probably not be amused. Readers will struggle to get invested in the character’s bizarre odyssey. (July)