She Treads Softly: Detour

Thursday, December 11, 2025

Detour

Detour Book Cover

Detour by Jeff Rake, Rob Hart
1/13/26; 320 pages
Random House
Detour series #1

Detour by Jeff Rake, Rob Hart is a highly recommended character drama and lite science fiction thriller which marks the start of a new series. Warning: this ends on a "to be continued..." cliffhanger and I really needed closure so my rating may go up after I get to finish the story.

John Ward, billionaire and presidential candidate, is financing an exploratory manned 2 year trip to Saturn's moon, Titan, where the crew will circle Titan, release a satellite, and return. This exploratory trip will provide information on Titan's potentially habitability.

The mission will be manned by three NASA astronauts and 3 civilians with limited training. The civilians include Padma Singh, an astrophysicist for Ward, Ryan Crane, a police officer who saved Ward’s life, and Stitch (Courtney) Smith, a graffiti artist who won a lottery for his place on the crew. The astronauts include Mike, who has a drinking problem, Della, who has family problems, and Alonso, who has personal questions.

The focus is more on the personnel, their private lives, the preparation for the trip, and repercussions after the trip rather than the space mission itself. The two year mission flies by quickly with one major event. As the ship is circling Titan, there are two unexplained explosions, but the crew works together to get back on course, and they return to Earth as heroes. Once back on Earth, it quickly become clear things have changed and the crew members may now be in a parallel universe.

It is a well written novel and held my complete attention. For the first book in what will hopefully be a great series, it was a great choice to focus on character development and background. The mission to Titan is important, but really serves to further the complicated interpersonal drama already established. Readers will be invested in what happens to these characters and all the information behind the conspiracy that seems to be taking place. While reading, it becomes quite clear that this was written for a TV series.

Detour is definitely worth reading, but it is best to start knowing there will be no closure until the next book in the series. Cliffhangers are perhaps better saved for TV shows rather than books; rounded down due to 4 due to this. Thanks to Random House Worlds for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.