You’ve heard the saying a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, with David Rawlings, it takes just a small percentage of those words to paint an entire picture: “The kitchen was a spotless tribute to reflection and polish. Even the cat’s litter box was immaculate, raked like a Japanese garden.” That combination of crisp, concise storytelling and vivid description makes this the kind of story that even non-readers will want to pick up.

The other really appealing thing about this story is its apparent simplicity. Less than twelve hours pass between the first page and the last and you can literally sum up the plot as “Three people pick up the wrong suitcases at the airport and go to the baggage centre to sort it out.” Even taking into account the obvious metaphor in the words “sort it out”, it doesn’t seem like much of a plot to work with. And then you’ve got the challenge of character development. How much can you really do with a character in less than twelve hours?

None of this seems to have daunted David Rawlings, because you do get to know these characters—as much as is necessary to the story—almost without realising it. Backstory is seamlessly woven into the narrative, and the characters’ emotional states and attitudes come through loud and clear in their actions and their different narrative voices. And of course the whole point of this story is that we’re meeting these characters at a turning point in their lives, when their eyes are opened to the baggage that’s weighing them down and they’re presented with the choice to keep dragging it behind them or give it to the Baggage Handler. And giving it to the Baggage Handler is not necessarily as easy as you would think.

This book is testament to the truth that stories don’t have to be complicated to be either engaging or thought-provoking. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for the next offering from this author.