Double Time

by Priscilla Cogan

A bank robbery gone awry. A pair of unlikely, unrelatedfemale hostages - the rebellious young teenage runawayand the opinionated octogenarian create an explosivecross-country journey with their... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1929590075
• ISBN13: 9781929590070
• Release Date: April 2007
• Publisher: Two Canoes Press
• Length: 239 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Double Pleasure!

Armed robbery, kidnapping, and a road trip filled with friendship, great scenery, and . . . read aloud time!?!!! This was such a treat, funny and wise, and so intriguing that I put aside work and other entertainments to keep on reading. The story-within-a-story is worthy of Sheherazade, with a bit of M.C. Escher and his Mobius curves.

Double Your Reading Enjoyment

This book is a lot of fun to read. This book grabbed me in the first chapter, and later chapters pulled me along, faster and faster. The prose was nicely organized and it was very easy to keep track of the story lines. I also loved the little surprises that Priscilla Cogan included, especially those in the final chapters. Billy Pickle is going to rob a bank. Unfortunately, the robbery begins to go sour even before Billy arrives at the bank. Once in the bank things become worse. Billy hands the teller a grocery list. After getting a rather small amount of money, Billy discovers that a group of teenage boys has slashed the tires on his getaway car. Thinking quickly - though not cleverly - Billy takes teenage runaway Phoenix Knott as a hostage. He then forces Octogenarian Kate Aregood to be his getaway driver. The situation becomes tense as Billy continually pines for his unfaithful girlfriend Carmelita, Phoenix bemoans the lack of an iPod charger and spouts expletives with great abandon, and Kate tries to keep everyone calm. To pass the time, the trio began reading a book titled "Double Trouble" by Felicity Dare. "Double Trouble" is nominally a romance novel, which is outside the genres I usually read, but I quickly became absorbed by the story of Daisy Hill and the DuMaurier family. I allowed "Double Time" and the novel within the novel to pull me along faster and faster, wondering what lay ahead. I was delighted to learn that author Priscilla Cogan had numerous surprises waiting for me from the beginning to the end, both in "Double Time" and in "Double Trouble." The two novels evolve in parallel. We learn much about the Kate, Billy and Phoenix and they learn about each other as they journey across the United States. We also learn similar things about Daisy Hill. The lessons that Kate, Billy and Phoenix learn from each other and "Double Trouble" help them all. Priscilla Cogan does tie up a lot of loose ends just a little too tidily, but I enjoyed the story so much that I was willing to overlook minor implausibilities. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow and enjoy a fun book, and this book is certainly a lot of fun. This book touches on several genres. People who enjoy romance novels may enjoy the novel in the novel. People who like stories about people discovering themselves and growing in a positive way will also like this book. People looking for an easy read with interesting twists will like the little secrets that Priscilla Cogan reveals in the final chapters. I sometimes enjoy reading a story that easily draws me onward rather than having to push my way through a lot of heavy prose. This book was a fun, fast book to read, and other than the frequent use of expletives in places, this book is suitable for most readers down to the age of 16 or 17 years old. This review is based on a copy of the book provided to me by the author. Enjoy!

Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun

From its implausible beginning to its clever end, Priscilla Cogan's DOUBLE TIME is a real delight to read. When hardluck schmo Billy Pickle botches a bank robbery (though he DOES get the money) and subsequently kidnaps a runaway teenager and an elderly widow, and the three take off in Matilda, Kate's (the octogenarian) car, you know you're in for an adventure. As they flee north and west, an impromptu family forms. The romance novel they read to entertain themselves on the trip, DOUBLE TROUBLE, becomes part of the fun. Like a Shakespearean comedy, the novel-within-the-novel plays on the mistaken identity of identical twins, and the comedy of the romance novel's characters spills into the "real" life of Billy, Kate, and Phoenix, the runaway. Somebody once compared a novel to a trip, and the roadtrip that forms the essential plot off DOUBLE TIME is indeed about discovery. The conclusion comes as a surprise but one you think afterward, "oh, I should have seen it coming!" Lots of fun.

An Adorable Story

This is an absolutely adorable story. It is actually a story within a story and was an interesting idea that was. It is a fairly quick and easy read that should appeal to a wide variety of readers. Enjoy.

enjoyable, skillfully crafted book

An enjoyable, skillfully crafted story with an ending that will surprise you. Find a comfortable place to curl up with this book, because you won't want to put it down.