Ride Away Home

This briskly paced debut crime novel from Wells begins with an odd premise: Jack Tanner, a 52-year-old, out-of-work tax attorney from the Minneapolis suburb of Edina decides to get a large Harley-Davidson and a learner's motorcycle permit. He embarks on a 2,300-mile road trip to Florida where he plans to confront Slater Babcock, the student boyfriend of his missing daughter, Hope. Jack is certain that Slater, once considered (but released) by the investigating police as a "person of interest," knows more than he has let on about Hope's disappearance from school more than a year ago. Slater has left the University of Wisconsin, and his father has set him up as a bar owner in Key West. En route, Jack stops by to visit his grieving, depressed wife Jenna, who has been an in-patient at an upscale psychiatric facility called The Sanctuary in MacLean, Va. On the road again, he meets a series of colorful and sometimes unsavory characters, beginning with Hannah, the nubile redheaded hitchhiker he picks up with disastrous results. Later, a motorcycle gang of white-collar members calling themselves the Devil's Disciples invites Jack to ride along with them to Florida. Upon reaching his destination, Jack again has to depend on a resourceful stranger's help, this time an Ernest Hemingway lookalike named Edward Hollingsworth, to close out Wells's offbeat but entertaining debut novel. (Aug.)