Keeping Pepper

By: Scott Brody

“You know, there really is such a thing as time travel. But it’s in your mind, traveling to different places and times you’ve been to.”

This book was so unexpected!!! We meet Mike, Mike Pepper. He has dementia and his wife, Elaine, placed him in a home. She doesn’t come to see him. However, he has two friends, Ed and Stacey who DO visit him. They hate seeing him in there and decide to break him out! There beings Pepper’s journey. With a gambling stop in Vegas, a road trip to a friends house, and a stint on a radio station, Pepper is living his best life! But someone heard him on the radio and became obsessed. He wants to make Pepper his friend. And that’s when things go very wrong.

This book was both suspenseful and beautiful at the same time. Brody really makes the reader think long and hard about those that have dementia and what it is like for them. Pepper seemed to be at his early stages of dementia, but he so eloquently described what it was like for him – how sometimes it felt like time travel in his own mind. Not only that, Brody makes the reader really think about what it is like in the homes that people put their loved ones into. While we are doing what we may think is best for them, they don’t necessarily feel the same. It’s so hard to hear that a loved on feels like a burden.

Then there is the suspense/thriller part of the book. Which went to a place that I didn’t see coming at all; I thought it was going to go in a completely different direction. I was so shocked by what was happening to Pepper, but really enjoyed reading about those that were in his life being so concerned with him. Even the radio talk show host was helping out.

All in all, an excellent read. This book is available now, you can get your copy here.