From the Library: The Lost Cyclist

Part One of The Lost Cyclist was as much about the travels of William Lewis Sachtleben and Thomas Gaskell Allen as it was about the purported main character, Frank Lenz. I was beginning to wonder if I had been misled, but didn't mind in the least bit; after all, it was like getting two travelogues for the price of one.

 Like Lenz, Allen and Sachtleben were among the earliest of bicycling's world travelers, circumnavigating the globe at the same time, though in opposite directions. Though the two never met the one, the three "globe-girdlers" possessed a shared sense of adventure, as well as a love of the means by which they undertook their adventures. For Sachtleben, at least, his ties to the plight of Lenz was not limited to their feat of adventure, and he remained an integral part of the Lenz story even after their lone compatriot met his, supposedly, violent end.

The Lost Cyclist reads like a murder mystery, which it is. What I mean by that is, it is written in such a way that I wanted to keep reading without putting it down, an edge of your seat drama in which I continually wondered how it would turn out. The outcome may have been a foregone conclusion, but in what circumstances did it progress, what role was played by the other protagonists, and what would be the result for them. There is no tidy ending to the story of Frank Lenz, if you need that in a book you will not find it here. All those loose threads that make up the life and death of Lenz do not get tied together. Never-the-less, the story of Lenz's travels and travails, and the suspense following his demise will capture your imagination.

Herlihy, David V.   The Lost Cyclist: The Epic Tale of an American Adventurer and His Mysterious Disappearance   New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010