Title: Just Out of Curiosity
Author: John D. King
Publisher: Xlibris
ISBN: 978-1-9845-1003-7
Pages: 149
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reviewed by: Jason Lulos
Hollywood Book Reviews
Just Out of Curiosity by author John D. King is an absorbing story with an inspired metaphoric thread. A progressive doctoral student fears his work has been stolen and repurposed for nuclear use. As an idealist who detests such a possibility, he decides to follow up on this hunch (just out of curiosity). It is a life-altering decision which goes on to have even wider, global implications. This fable, set amidst actual historical events and people, brilliantly yet subtly illustrates the butterfly effect of each decision a person makes. And fittingly, like a nuclear chain reaction, each choice can have drastic consequences.
Bob Novaro is a physics student at a small university in South Texas. Believing his mentor has used his research on cobalt and nickel to enrich uranium irks the left-leaning, young student. Bob steals his mentor’s notes to confirm his suspicions. Bob is then arrested and tried for taking classified documents. In a subsequent impulsive move, he requests a lawyer sympathetic to his politics. Although somewhat exonerated, Bob is now indebted to said lawyer who then pawns Bob off to a radical, Marxist dictator in South America. Victor Martillo welcomes Bob, hoping he can aid in their attempts to build an atomic bomb.
Bob Novaro has residual leftist sympathies from his younger days but his current main objection is to nuclear weapons. Under the employ of the dictator, Martillo, Bob is given a salary and a home but for all intents and purposes, he is a prisoner of the state. He is thus faced with the ethical dilemma of working for and against his captor. Chances of escape are slim to none, so Bob endeavors to thwart or stall the enrichment process while trying to make a life for himself. It is a balance between ethical sabotage and staying alive, Bob continuously negotiating his principles and his need to survive. He falls in love with a local (Rita) and this becomes his only comfort in his tenuous game of cat and mouse between himself and the dictator.
Just Out of Curiosity is a very entertaining, well-paced read with some really brilliant, descriptive writing. The historical and scientific contexts give this story a very realistic quality but the underlying metaphors and subtle didacticism rightfully keep this within the realm of what I would call a “fable.” I will note that author John King’s subtle lessons on cause and effect are indeed pleasant “effects” of what is really an engrossing, plot-driven novel. This will particularly appeal to readers into historical fiction and spy novels. However, the thematically-driven plot and the exceptional writing make this applicable to anyone looking for a good story.