Kurt’s life has been one dead end after another since he was convicted of attempted rape thirty years ago.

Inspired by a dream, he thinks he’s finally found the way to

Surely Vicky’s husband, wealthy investment consultant Jimmy, would pay handsomely for the safe return of his wife.

But Kurt soon learns that even Easy Street has its share of pot holes.

After the road trip from Hell, Kurt arrives in Florida to learn that Jimmy is planning to leave Vicky and may not be interested in saving her. On top of that Jimmy’s mysterious mistress wants her own piece of the action.

To make matters worse, Kurt gets on the wrong side of a biker, a bookie and an ex-Navy SEAL who seem determined to make the rest of his life as painful as possible.

Meanwhile, Danny Putnam is enjoying life in Florida. He owns a successful dive shop and has a very comfortable lifestyle until he starts having bizarre dreams about his murdered wife and a beautiful woman he has never met. Suddenly his comfortable life becomes very complicated.

Living the Dream

Tim Baker
Dog Ear Publishing (2009)
ISBN 9781608440870
Reviewed by Kam Aures for Rebeccasreads.com (07/09)


"Living the Dream” by Tim Baker starts out with Kurt reminiscing about an event that took place thirty years ago.  He had met a girl named Vicky at a Doobie Brothers concert.  When he and his friend tried to get her and her friend to leave with them, Kurt got a little overzealous and grabbed her and tried to kiss her.  She defended herself by kneeing him in the groin and kicking him in the ribs.  Then came a moment that would change his life forever; she screamed which got a patrolman’s attention, and when the cop came over she told him that Kurt had tried to rape her.   For this incident, he ended up serving six months and got two years of probation. 

The reason that this event is brought back into focus is because of a dream that Kurt has about Vicky.  With these memories in the forefront, he decides to embark on a journey from Rhode Island down to Florida, where Vicky lives, to kidnap her and try to extort a large amount of ransom money from Vicky’s rich husband Jimmy.  What follows is an experience wrought with disaster for Kurt.

The story starts off with the individual chapters each focusing on the different characters and then slowly their lives start to intertwine and intersect.  I truly enjoyed this aspect of the book and Baker did a great job of neatly tying everyone together. 

My favorite part of the book was Kurt’s adventurous drive down to Florida.  I loved reading about all of his mishaps and bad luck.  It was one thing after another which made for a fast-paced read that will definitely hold your attention.

Overall, “Living the Dream” is a humorous crime novel with a cast of very interesting characters.  Baker does an excellent job with the character development and his descriptive writing allows the reader to vividly picture all of the scenes taking place.  I look forward to reading more of Baker’s novels in the future!