Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

Random Shootings is a contemporary fiction novel written by Frank Drury. John, a newspaper reporter, and his wife, Diana, were living in Jacksonville, Florida, until one evening when John almost got involved in a sexual situation with his neighbor, Diana. When her husband, Cliff, came home unexpectedly, John left through the bedroom window. Some time later, he heard a banging at his door and he opened it to a very angry Cliff who found John’s wallet which he’d left in the panic. Cliff assaults John, who loses consciousness. He wakes up in the bedroom with his angry neighbor looming over him and his wife. John reaches in the night table for his gun and, almost without realizing it, shoots Cliff twice in the chest, killing him.

Frank Drury’s contemporary fiction novel, Random Shootings, is a provocative look at the gun culture and the impact of 'castle defense' and 'stand your ground' legislation in the United States. Throughout the story, the author presents a number of stressful situations where lives are placed at risk or lost, simply because one or more of the participants had been carrying a gun. Cliff’s death is something John has to live with every day, no matter what the justification or the fact that Cliff had been abusing his son and wife, and even if he did not have to go through the courts, his life was changed. Random Shootings is chilling and feels all too real when you consider the number of deaths due to guns that occur each day. Drury's thoughtful and well-written work infuses real life to those statistics and brings home the realities of random gun violence quite clearly. Random Shootings is recommended reading.