B.D. Lawrence's Blog, page 8

Book Review of Navajo by Darryl Benally

Navajo  by Darryl Benally

 

I bought this book as research for my next One-Armed Detective novel as I want to set that novel in Navajo Nation. For those that don’t know, Navajo Nation is in northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico. This is one man’s story of growing up in the Navajo Nation. It’s a fascinating look at a difficult family situation intermixed with modern Navajo culture and ancient Navajo legends.

Many of the chapters start with a vignette about the Tó’aheedlíinii Lady, the legendary matriarch of the Tó’aheedlíinii clan, the largest of the Navajo clans, to which the author’s family belonged. Each vignette is a chain in the linked story of this woman.

Mr. Benally pulls no punches describing the struggles his family had with an alcoholic father. He also describes the challenges he went through attending a government-run boarding school. He describes these schools, which his mother also attended, as places designed to strip away the Navajo culture from the students in an attempt to “help” them blend into American culture.

Ironically, Mr. Benally’s personal story isn’t different from many personal stories in all cultures around the world. Dysfunctional families are found everywhere. And dealing with one or more alcoholic parents impacts millions of children. What I found fascinating was how he wove into his personal story the traditions and lessons handed down through his family, clan, and tribe, and how those lessons helped him on his journey of strength, courage, and resilience.

Much of the book is set during the early eighties, during Mr. Benally’s childhood. His story is compelling, tragic, and yet hopeful. What I’m unclear on and hope to learn is how different is Navajo life today compared to forty years ago.

For anyone whose knowledge of the indigenous people in our country is gleaned only from television, movies, or heaven help you, the media, I recommend this book, which should dispel many of those stereotypes.

One of Mr. Benally’s claims is that indigenous people groups and especially the Navajo are forgotten people in this country. And to his point, there isn’t much reported on them. In Arizona where I live, we see a little more, especially during COVID as it hit their community hard, and now with some stories in the news about how certain organizations are running welfare scams on them. But we tend to focus on other minority groups and not enough on the indigenous peoples who were here long before other people groups were.

I’ll rank this number two so far, based on the content and the number of stickies marking pages with potentially useful information for my upcoming novel. However, the ranking system for non-fiction doesn’t seem as useful as it is for fiction, as the topics may drive which books readers will read. And unlike the fiction selections I’ve read this year, all the non-fiction books have been excellent.

 

Loonshots by Safi BahcallNavajo by Darryl BenallyChase the Lion by Mark BattersonOriginals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant

Commission earned

Book review of Death of a Messenger by Robert McCaw

Death of a Messenger  by Robert McCaw

 

Being a police procedural mystery, this story features justice. Have to catch the bad guy, right? And Detective Koa Kãne will not be denied. This is the first of the Koa Kãne Hawaiian Mysteries series. There are currently four books out in the series. And the first one starts the series well.

Overall, it’s a good mystery. What I really liked about it was the setting. Hawaii. And even more than the setting, I appreciated the Hawaiian culture brought into the story. Detective Kãne is a native Hawaiian, so McCaw explores the conflict between Hawaiian natives and non-natives. Much of the book centers around Hawaiian native artifacts. Some of the characters belong to a group dedicated to preserving those artifacts. The murder victim was one of those and he is found in an ancient cave filled with ancient artifacts.

Koa Kãne has the potential to grow into an interesting character. The character depth was okay, but it is book one of the series, so I’d expect McCaw to further flesh him out. I was hoping the epilogue might have some foreshadowing of the next book, but it didn’t. I’ll leave the actual subject for the reader to discover.

As for the mystery, I figured out who the killer was about a third into the book. However, don’t let that dissuade you. I chalk that up more to me also writing mysteries than it being obvious. It wasn’t obvious and McCaw did well in leading the reader down several rabbit trails. This book was a fun, and for me at least, an educational read.

The writing isn’t bestseller yet, but nothing pulled me out of the story. The technical aspect around the police procedures seemed reasonable. And again, nothing pulled me out of the story or caused me to say, “wait a minute.”

There was a fair amount of profanity. No on page sex. Some violence, but it wasn’t over the top. As for the profanity, I’ve written a blog post about what I think of profanity in fiction. I’ll leave it at this. Many writers go for realism. However, if I want realism, I’ll read non-fiction. When I read fiction, I’d prefer to leave reality behind. I’ll rank this one number 6 in the list of what I’ve read this year so far. Definitely the best indie/small publisher read of the year.

 

Rooms by James L. RubartThe First Lady by Ed GormanEvery Dead Thing by John ConnollySeveral Deaths Later by Ed GormanCitadel (Palladium Wars Book 3) by Marko KloosDeath of a Messenger by Robert McCawThe Little Grave by Carolyn ArnoldBarrier Island by John D. MacDonaldJake of All Trades by A.T. MahonFireplay by Steve P. VincentWrong Place Wrong Time by David P. PerlmutterNowhere Safe by Kate BoldThe Bone Key Curse by Mike ScantleburyRun for Your Life by C.M. Sutter

Commission earned

Supernatural elements in Phillip Angelo Stories and their Biblical Basis

Supernatural elements in Phillip Angelo Stories and their Biblical Basis

 

Phillip Angelo is a private detective who specializes in finding lost people. The word lost has two connotations. The one that probably jumps into most people’s minds is that someone has wandered off, been kidnapped, or disappeared. The other meaning that is more appropriate for Phillip’s adventures are people who have lost their way spiritually. His mission is to find them and bring them back. Sometimes that means physically finding them and delivering them to where they belong. Other times it’s helping a person reach a spiritual destination. Often, it’s both.

In these stories, the supernatural is prevalent. Phillip is guided by the Holy Spirit. Things happen that cannot be explained by natural laws. However, nothing that happens to Phillip is magic or fantasy. All the supernatural happenings in these stories have a Biblical basis. We, as Christians, may not experience these supernatural happenings in our everyday walk. But is that because God doesn’t perform these miracles, or is it because we lack the faith to believe God does and God will?

Let’s look at some examples from the currently published stories and where in the Bible I found my inspiration for them.

All of Phillip’s abilities come from the Holy Spirit. Phillip seems to have powers to do things ordinary people cannot do. But does he? In Acts 1:8 (ESV), Jesus says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” If we have received the Holy Spirit, we have power. Phillip is given his power by the indwelling Holy Spirit as is appropriate for the occasion. And like all of us, he can correctly use that power, misuse it, or even ignore it. To reinforce us having power, Paul writes in Ephesians, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly that all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us…” (Eph. 3:20 ESV). All Christians who have professed Christ have this power. Phillip is in touch with his power and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit puts it to use in finding lost people.

In the opening scene in “Lost Children”, Phillip kneels in a crowded mall and gestures with his arms. A path opens around him. All but one of the shoppers make a wide circle as they bustle by. In the book of John, chapter ten, Jesus is in the temple speaking. He offends the Pharisees, and they move to arrest him and stone him. But he eludes them. “Again, they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.” (John 10:39 ESV). A slightly different situation, but the same concept. A crowd does not impede Jesus and it does not impede Phillip.

Continuing in “Lost Children”, Phillip talks to the woman who reports the lost children. She says,

“Three young children…maybe six, five, and three…” She glanced at Phillip, then quickly lowered her gaze. “They were playing on an empty shelf in the store.”

“I see them. Very cute. Yours?”

The children are not within line of site. But, like Jesus with Nathaniel, the Holy Spirit gives Phillip a view of these children. John 1:48 says, “Nathanael said to him, ‘How do you know me?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.’” (ESV).

Frequently, throughout all the stories, the Holy Spirit directly talks with Phillip. We’ll often hear preachers tell us that we won’t hear an audible voice. Phillip does. Is this Biblical? Jesus said, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things…” (John 14:26 ESV). And John 16:13 gives more insight into this process. “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” (ESV. Emphasis mine). This verse references some specific teachings, but clearly says the spirit will speak. Finally, 1Corinthians 2:10-16 talks about the Holy Spirit revealing things to us. The revelation may take many forms. I chose the form to be audible speaking to Phillip.  

Phillip can sense or feel evil. In “Sitting on a Park Bench” this spiritual gift is put to use in discovering a bad family situation. This spiritual gift is spoken of by Paul in 1Corinthians 12:10, “to another the ability to distinguish between spirits.” (ESV).

Near the end of “Sitting on a Park Bench”, Phillip talks with the woman he helped.

“Jamie, if you ever need my help again–”

            “I know. Just think your name. Philip Angelo.”

The implication here is that Phillip will know by the Holy Spirit that Jamie needs help. Paul experiences something similar. “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.” (Acts 16:9, ESV).

In the opening scene of “To Die is Gain” Phillip goes to sleep in his own bed in St. Louis, but when he wakes up, he’s in a small house in China. This is teleportation. And yes, teleportation is in the Bible. “And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away…But Philip found himself in Azotus…” (Acts 8:39-40, ESV).

Also, in “To Die is Gain”, both Phillip and Michael are able to speak to their Chinese hosts and understand what their hosts and the other people around them are saying, even though neither one of them normally speaks a Chinese dialect. We see this in the Bible in Acts chapter two, versus five to eleven where all the visitors to Jerusalem hear the apostles speaking to them in their own tongues and understand them.

The last example from “To Die is Gain”:

“They can’t see us.”

“What do you mean?” Michael asked.

“The police, they can’t see or hear us. Only the congregation can. We’re in no danger here.”

In the story, both Phillip and Michael are only visible to the congregants of the church and not the authorities. There is something similar in 2 Kings 6:17 where the mountain is covered with an angelic army. Elisha prays to have his servant’s eyes opened to see them. I figure if God can conceal an army of angels and make them visible to some people, he could do the same with humans.

“The Road to Matagalpa” is the origin story of Phillip showing where and how he receives the Holy Spirit. I purposely made Phillip’s encounter with Jesus similar to that of Paul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:3-5). Here’s a small snippet of that scene.

Paralysis. Stuck now to the ground. Flat on his back, arms to his side, head up, staring at the house. Tongues of flame danced in the air between him and the swinging front door of the woman’s house. A bright, white-hot light, first just a pinprick hovering before him, but growing in size and intensity until a man in a glowing robe stood before him.

Finally, in “The Road to Matagalpa”, Phillip returns to his hotel room and throws the Bible he was given on his bed.

A fluttering noise coming from the direction of the bed caught his attention. He froze and watched in fascinated horror. The Bible was now open. The pages flipped rapidly, first from the front of the book to the back, then the back to the front, then again front to back, only this time stopping about three quarters through.

While not identical, I drew inspiration from Daniel 5:5 where a hand appears to Belshazzar and writes on the King’s wall. The Bible is God’s word, so in Phillip’s case, God did not need to write what was already written. God needed to move the Bible to where he wanted Phillip to read.

I give you all these examples for a couple reasons. First, I hope they entice you to read these short stories. They are all available for free on my website at https://www.bdlawrence/stories/. I’ve also hyperlinked the first instance of each in this article. But the more important reason I’ve highlighted these supernatural events in my stories is that I feel Christians in America have stopped expecting miracles. We live our lives. We pray to God. We ask him for help in our everyday lives, but our expectations of the answers to those prayers are mundane. Do we really expect God to demonstrate supernatural acts in our lives? Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (ESV). Why have we lost our expectation of supernatural miracles?

With the Phillip Angelo stories I hope to reawaken that desire and expectation of God’s supernatural hand in our lives. I hope to show readers that God is still capable of being God. If we listen to the Holy Spirit and follow his teaching, we too can experience the supernatural miracles that come with being a follower of Jesus Christ.

Book Review of Loonshots by Safi Bahcall

Loonshots by Safi Bahcall

Last quarter for work I read Originals, which was about individual innovators. This quarter I read Loonshots which is about group innovation and what drives it. This is a great read from two perspectives. First, Bahcall tells a lot of stories around the history of many people we’re all familiar with and companies we’ve all heard of. However, there are also stories about people maybe you haven’t heard of but are responsible for inventions you’re sure to have heard about. Second, the concepts I feel are spot on and applicable to all of us working in a company that makes products. I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in product development or promotion.

Bahcall tells the stories of Nokia, the radar, Bell Labs, statin drugs, Polaroid, NeXT computers and Steve Jobs, Pixar and others. He uses these stories and examples to explain his theories around why some products succeed, and others don’t.

A loonshot as Bahcall defines it is a neglected project, widely dismissed, its champion written off as unhinged. The products described in this book are all game changing products that had a long and difficult road.

Bahcall explains the Bush-Vail rules about how to be a successful company that has both loonshots and franchise products. He talks about the barriers that can get in the way of convincing those who make the decisions that a loonsoot is something worth pursuing.

At the end of the book is an appendix that summarizes all his concepts. I found this to be a great addition and can become a helpful reference, saving time from having to search the entire book for something.

Bahcall does jump around quite a bit, so it’s incumbent on the reader to pay attention. He often goes on tangents that at first seem unrelated, but he always returns showing the connections.

The author applies his theories to companies, industries and even nations. He does introduce some equations that seem more to fit his examples than ones that explain generalities. I skipped over most of that part being more interested in the concepts themselves.

Of the three read so far this year, I’ll put this one first.

 

Loonshots by Safi BahcallChase the Lion by Mark BattersonOriginals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant

Commission earned

What Makes a Good Novel

What Makes a Good Novel

“There are bad novels and good novels…but that is the only distinction in which I see any meaning…the only classification of the novel that I can understand is into the interesting and the uninteresting…it is of execution that we are talking — that being the only point of a novel that is open to contention.” Henry James in his essay “The Art of Fiction”, published in Longman’s Magazine in 1884.

If you are not familiar. Henry James wrote an essay as a critique of a talk given by English novelist Walter Besant in 1884. The main contention James had was Besant’s narrow rules for what makes good fiction.

Both the talk and the essay have relevance for today.

I agree with James that Besant’s overarching presentation of good fiction is extremely narrow. But he had some great points. Besant said, “a simple rule that nothing should be admitted which does not advance the story.” He argued that all description and dialogue should help the action or illustrate the characters, otherwise it’s not needed.

Besant warns against paying publishers to publish a work. Today, vanity publishing.

He said, “the only danger is that the universal cry for more [fiction] may lead to hasty and immature production.” James agrees with this point, saying “It must be admitted that good novels are somewhat compromised by bad ones, and that the field at large suffers discredit from overcrowding.” We see the same issues today.

Besant also said, “it is perfectly certain that if the work is good, it will be accepted and published.” Not true in today’s market-driven publishing world.

What distinguishes good fiction from bad fiction? According to Henry James, there are six criteria. First, the novel should be instructive or amusing. His use of amusing is not meant to mean funny or comedic, but entertaining.

James’ most important characteristic is that the novel should be interesting. He follows this up by saying that good fiction leaves an intense impression. The impression can be good or bad. In contrast, Besant argued all fiction should have a “conscious moral purpose”.

Besant argued that all fiction should be based on reality. Characters should be real people that we could meet. James counters this saying fiction should have an impression of reality – an illusion of life. Besant would not acknowledge speculative fiction, whereas James opens that door. James said, “As people feel life, so they will feel the art that is most closely related to it.” For many, that may mean an escape to an alternate universe or fantasy world.

James said, ““Nothing, of course, will ever take the place of the good old fashion of ‘liking’ a work of art or not liking it.” His fifth evaluation point for fiction: The reader likes it.

Finally, James says that good fiction is where the writing succeeds in what it attempts.

The above criteria seem completely subjective. But we can use these points to gauge our own fiction before we put it out for public consumption. Ask these questions of our beta readers. Was my story interesting? Was it instructive? Was it entertaining? Did you feel like the world it presented was realistic? Was there an illusion of life? Did it leave an impression? Did you like the story? And finally, do you have an idea of what I was trying to accomplish with this novel, and did I do so? Asking these questions of real readers may allow us to present a good novel versus a bad novel.

In today’s overcrowded market, we can only hope that “the bad is swept with all the daubed canvases and spoiled marble, into some unvisited limbo or infinite rubbish-yard, beneath the back-windows of the world, and the good subsists and emits its light and stimulates our desire for perfection.” (Henry James, “The Art of Fiction”).

Henry James closes his essay with a poignant piece of advice. “Remember that your first duty is to be as complete as possible — to make as perfect a work.”

Book Review of The Bone Key Curse by Mike Scantlebury

The Bone Key Curse, Mike Scantlebury

This story ended in justice. I’ll give it that much. On several levels, this book didn’t work for me. Starting with the title. There is a bone key, but we never find out what it’s for.

This is book seven in the Mickey from Manchester series. There are currently sixteen books in the series. This is the only book in this series I’ve read. I was asked by the publisher to do a review of this book and was given a free copy of the book. Not sure after this, they’ll want to give me another one.

First the story. We are landed in the middle of an archaeological dig where a ship from Roman times has been found in England. On the ship are pots with writing on them. British Army special forces are guarding the archaeologists. The main character is the lead special forces officer on the site. The artifacts found in this dig have upset religious fanatics because they believe the pots with writing on them could disrupt Christianity. Early on, they attack the party setting them on the run with many of the pots.

The premise is interesting, though the execution fell short for me. I always cringe when writers use violent Christian fanatics, portraying them as if they represent all of Christianity. This book wanted to be like Dan Brown’s books. And unfortunately, where it succeeded was in the ridiculous Christian conspiracies that The Jesus Seminar and Dan Brown are famous for. In essence, this book brings forward the premise that the entire Old Testament is made up and not history. In the story, even an envoy from the Archbishop of Canterbury acknowledges this and claims his boss believes this. The writer really needed to do more Biblical research before writing this story. The Bible is one of the most proved historical records in existence. And contrary to the claims in this novel, archaeological finds and the Bible generally agree.

The bulk of the story is two of the British Army special forces, Mickey and Melia, running around England trying to keep an archaeologist, a journalist and a policeman safe from the violent Christian fanatics while the laptop they carry crunches through the ancient text translating it and comparing it to other texts.

The book has a lot of action. However, the writer’s style didn’t sit well with me. The prose is way too wordy. Also, there were copious amounts of typos. We learn very little about Mickey, the main character, other than he’s a man of action and complains a lot because his teammates won’t always explain to him what’s going on with the translation.

In writing there is an axiom known as show don’t tell. This writer does that – shows. However, he then tells, over and over. This style didn’t work for me. Showing action, then telling us every minute thought the character has about that action and giving us paragraphs of commentary.

There’s a lot of head hopping when it comes to point of view. I prefer a consistent point of view within a section, with section breaks where POV changes. And if the writer was going for an omniscient narrator, it didn’t succeed for me. I enjoy omniscient narrators that have character. Think Princess Bride.  Another good example is Lord of the Rings.

Another picky thing that bugged me was the insane number and variations of saidisms. This means after dialog adding “he said [insert word(s)].” The writer added adverbs to almost every he/she said. Not a technique I like.

A couple of glaring technical errors jumped out at me and made me pause. The laptop they are carrying around has a hard drive with moving parts, so they are worried about tipping it. Solid state drives have been used in laptops since the early nineties. This book was written in 2018 and as far as I could tell was in a modern setting. Along those same lines, somehow this laptop keeps its Wi-Fi connection everywhere. This includes in an ancient cellar, in a boat down the river, in a car traveling many miles. It seems to automatically connect. Would have been much more believable if using a cell phone as a hotspot. But even then, it would have lost connection in the cellar and underground river. There are some severe blunders by Mickey, a seasoned army officer as well. One involves losing his gun.

One religious blunder really jumped out at me, other than the entire premise. The aforementioned envoy to the Archbishop of Canterbury also said, “(God) moves in mysterious ways, as the Bible says.” Nowhere in the Bible is this statement.

There is profanity scattered throughout. No on page sex. The violence is minimal. This is not a writer I’ll read more of because he writes in a style that I’m not a fan of.

I’m ranking this one twelfth of the ones I’ve read this year.

Rooms by James L. RubartThe First Lady by Ed GormanEvery Dead Thing by John ConnollySeveral Deaths Later by Ed GormanCitadel (Palladium Wars Book 3) by Marko KloosThe Little Grave by Carolyn ArnoldBarrier Island by John D. MacDonaldJake of All Trades by A.T. MahonFireplay by Steve P. VincentWrong Place Wrong Time by David P. PerlmutterNowhere Safe by Kate BoldThe Bone Key Curse by Mike ScantleburyRun for Your Life by C.M. Sutter

Commission earned

Review of the movie Sound of Freedom

Sound of Freedom, starring Jim Caviezel

This is a disturbing, powerful, and important film. It is also well made. Good acting. Great direction. Good music. Unlikely to be up for academy awards, though. I’m guessing too much conviction. I recommend everyone go see this movie. This movie is a good step forward in highlighting the social blight of sex trafficking. Though this film is about traffickers in Columbia, the predominant clients of children for sex are Americans.

This is a film about Tim Ballard, a former Homeland Security investigator who spent his career arresting pedophiles. It’s a true story and it’s the story of how Mr. Ballard became involved in rescuing trafficked children. He is the founder of Operation Underground Railroad, an organization dedicated to rescuing trafficked children around the world.

Jim Caviezel plays Tim Ballard, and as always, his performance is superb. Mira Sorvino is his wife, though her part is small. The movie is set mostly in Columbia, with some scenes in Mexico, some in Honduras, and some in the United States.

What is both fascinating and disturbing is that the two children we’re introduced to at the beginning who are stolen and trafficked live in Honduras but end up in different countries. The movie highlights the extensive network of human trafficking, or modern-day slavery. The amount of money being made is outrageous, which is why movies like this are important. One line that Caviezel had about how much more lucrative sex trafficking is than drugs was that cocaine is sold and then used. But children can be sold five times a day for ten years. If anyone still thinks human beings by nature are not depraved, go see the movie and see if your opinion changes. This is not something that happens to a small group of people. Millions of children are trafficked each year, which means tens of millions, maybe even hundreds of millions of times adults are paying to have sex with children. We live in a messed up, depraved world. And only God can help us to overcome that depravity.

This is a tough subject and one that could have been extremely graphic. However, the filmmakers did a great job of getting the message across, showing how awful the situations are, but in a tasteful, non-graphic way. The language is toned down. Occasional profanity, but understandable.

Please go see this movie. And if you’re so inclined pay it forward. Below is a link where you can buy movie tickets for others who may not be able to buy them. The movie should be in theaters for a couple months. Take your kids, as it’s important they understand the gravity of human trafficking. However, I’d suggest teenagers and above. For younger kids, start talking to them, helping them understand the dangers of sex trafficking. If you’re unclear how to look for it, how to talk about it, how to help fight it, go online and check out Tim Ballard’s organization. Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.).

And when you go see this film, stay for a few minutes after the first set of credits. Jim Caviezel gives an important message to the audience.

Pay it forward with tickets to Sound of Freedom.

Book Review of The First Lady by Ed Gorman

The First Lady by Ed Gorman 

This highly suspenseful thriller features justice and vengeance. It’s Ed Gorman at his best. This one was first published in 1995 but is still available. You’ve probably heard books and movies described as roller coaster rides. This one is part of a roller coaster ride. In the edition I have the first two-hundred and thirty pages are the roller coaster going up the first big hill. The last one-hundred and forty pages is the roller coaster screaming down the big hill, going faster and faster and faster. The last part of this book is intense. I read those last one-hundred and forty pages in two sittings, staying up later than I intended. I haven’t read something that intense in some time.

The book is set in the early nineties. The featured family is the president of the United States and his first lady. They also have a twelve-year-old daughter who is an essential character. Deidre, the daughter, seemed more mature than her age, but having been in the White House for nearly three years might make a child grow up quickly.

Claire Hutton, the first lady, is accused of murdering a friend of hers, one who she’s been paying clandestine visits to. One of her visits happens immediately. The murder happens about a third of the way into the book, but the book jacket mentions the murder, so that’s why I’m mentioning it as well. The first third of the book is set up. We get to know the characters involved. Ironically, especially given today’s political climate, the first family is a good, decent family, trying to do their best. They make mistakes both in the present time and in their past, but overall are good people. Gorman made them Republican centrists, under attack by both the left and the conservative right. Re-election primaries are approaching. Their arch enemy in this story is also a former friend of theirs, Knox Stansfield, who has a conservative radio show. He spends many of his shows bashing the president, trying to get a more conservative candidate elected in the upcoming primary.

As mentioned, Gorman does an amazing job of fleshing out the main characters. There is quite a variety of people involved in this story. Also, there are many points of view, but I didn’t have any trouble keeping them sorted. This isn’t a mystery. We know who the murderer is. Therefore, Gorman has to build intensity in other ways than via mystery. And he does an excellent job of that. To build on the roller coaster metaphor, there are some sharp curves in the downhill descent as well. One I didn’t see coming, though there were some hints.

The only downside of this book for me was the crudity. A lot of references to sex and a few on page sex scenes. The profanity is sparse. No real violence or gore. The interesting thing about the cruder sex scenes was that they involved the less savory characters. With the first family, it was always a cut away when things got started, and was more tender, more about love than about sex.

I’ll rank this one number two for the year so far. Rooms still holds the top spot. This book is on Kindle Unlimited, if you have that, or you can pick it up reasonably from Amazon.

Rooms by James L. RubartThe First Lady by Ed GormanEvery Dead Thing by John ConnollySeveral Deaths Later by Ed GormanCitadel (Palladium Wars Book 3) by Marko KloosThe Little Grave by Carolyn ArnoldBarrier Island by John D. MacDonaldJake of All Trades by A.T. MahonFireplay by Steve P. VincentWrong Place Wrong Time by David P. PerlmutterNowhere Safe by Kate BoldRun for Your Life by C.M. Sutter

Commission earned

What is a Coyote?

What is a Coyote?

On the cover of The Coyote and a One-Armed Man, you’ll see a coyote. In this case, the animal we’re all familiar with. However, that is not what the word coyote refers to in the title. The coyote that Lefty encounters walks upright on two feet. The use of coyote here describes a person who helps smuggle humans across the border. A coyote specifically smuggles people across the Mexican border into the United States.

While the use of the word coyote to describe a human smuggler may be recent, the concept is not. US companies in the early nineteenth century hired middlemen to smuggle laborers across the Mexican border. One industry that used this technique was the railroads, as they built the tracks across our country. These middlemen were called enganchadores, which is translated “hookers”. We’ve hijacked that term in more modern times equating it with prostitutes. The enganchdores may have been the precursor to the coyotes.

Why the term coyote to describe a human smuggler? I came across several plausible reasons. The word coyote is the same in English and Spanish. And both refer to the four-legged creature that roams most of both countries.

The word coyote has an Aztec root of cóyotl, which is translated as trickster. This is a fitting name for a human smuggler, as their goal is to trick the border patrol and get their cargo into the United States. And it adequately describes the four-legged animal. They are smart, crafty predators. I’d say a human smuggler is also a predator. They prey on the hopes and dreams of people that are struggling in Mexico. These predators charge enormous amounts of money to bring families into the United States, often dumping them over the border and leaving them on their own from that point on.

On Quora someone suggested that immigrant smugglers must be smart, wily, and sly to get their people across the border and not get caught. This definition can also describe the animal coyote, except in the case of Wiley Coyote, who tries to catch the roadrunner but always fails. Natural coyotes are survivors and good adaptors. They live in all kinds of environments and can live undetected amongst many people. An attribute of the human coyote is the need to go undetected.

In my book, there is one character who is a coyote. We meet him in the prolog as he brings the Placido family across the border. Miguel, the father of the family, has paid this coyote a considerable amount of money. It’s a larger than normal sum because Miguel used to work for a cartel in Hermosillo, Mexico. Part of the fee is for the coyote and part is for the release of his duties to the cartel. The coyote is also employed by the same cartel. This is common. Coyotes are often associated with cartels. It’s a big business. While many coyotes are smuggling people like Miguel’s family that want a better life in the United States, others are smuggling girls being sex trafficked, people carrying drugs for the cartel, and criminals coming into the US to do the cartel’s bidding.

Often, coyotes do not work alone, but in large organizations. In The Coyote and a One-Armed Man, Ricky has several people that work with him to help him transport families across the border. In real life, a coyote organization can often be a large, hierarchical organization. There are interior coyotes that are stationed in a town in Mexico, often their hometown, where they have influence. They recruit people from their hometown. These predators find people unhappy with their situation and convince them to pay their organization a lot of money to be transported to the US, where they are promised a better life.

There are border, or exterior, coyotes who live near the border and are the ones that help people cross the border. There are people in the organization, often US children, who are used as distractions, like throwing rocks at border control agents. They also put spikes in the roads. US children are recruited for this because the penalties if they are caught are much less severe.

The use of coyotes has increased over the last years due to the heightened security on the border. People trying to cross on their own are often caught. The methods coyotes use to get people across vary. The method I chose to use in my book is via a tunnel in the desert away from any population and away from the usual patrol areas.

Ricky, the coyote in The Coyote and a One-Armed Man, is seen later in the book as well as in the prolog. He has a small, but important part. Why did he get the headline on the title? For no other reason than I thought it made a good title. Let me know what you think. Do you like the title? When you read the book let me know if you agree that it applies.

Of course, being fiction, nothing is as simple as Ricky helping the Placido family across the border. There’s a catch. And this catch drives the last half of the book. What is it? You’ll have to read the book to find out.

Book Review of The Little Grave by Carolyn Arnold

The Little Grave by Carolyn Arnold

 

A twisty mystery police procedural that featured all the key themes: Justice, vengeance, and a start at redemption. This is the first Detective Amanda Steele book. Amanda is a homicide detective for the Prince William County Police Department. She lives in the small town of Dumfries, Virginia, which interestingly enough, though not mentioned in the book, is close to Quantico. The author does a good job with scene and setting. We get a picture of that part of the country and what small town life can be like.

Amanda Steele’s husband and daughter were killed by a drunk driver five plus years before the start of this book. Amanda is also the daughter of the former police chief of the PWCPD. Both these facts drive a lot of the subplots and characterization in the story. Since the accident, she’s been on auto-drive, not getting any pleasure out of life or work. Then, the drunk driver who killed her family is released from prison, but only lasts a few days. He’s found dead in his hotel from an apparent overdose of alcohol. Amanda is alerted to this by a law enforcement friend of hers. In looking at the scene she is not convinced that Chad Palmer drank himself to death.

In the one part that gave me pause, Amanda convinced her sergeant to allow her to work the case to determine if Palmer was murdered and if so, by whom. I’ll chalk this up to literary license. Once past that police procedure faux paus, the rest of the book was good. The one case becomes two cases with the question being are they related. The ending of this book was a great twist. I didn’t see it coming until just before it was revealed. The ending is worth the entire read.

The writing is okay. Not quite the prose of Michael Connelly or John Connolly. Very few, if any, typos, though. No other gotchas jumped out at me. I started out not liking Amanda Steele, but she grew on me as the story went on. I can’t imagine what it feels like to be a mother and wife losing her husband and young daughter like she did, so I had to cut her slack on attitude. She’s a lone wolf, even before the accident, but is forced to work with a partner. She’s shut her entire family out since the accident. And she has some other issues resulting from the accident that play an interesting role in the story. Overall, strong characterization and strong story elements propelled the story along. And in the end, there’s a situation left open that I’m sure the author will pursue in subsequent books. Books I hope to read sometime.

Some profanity, but not much. A couple sexual situations, but no on page sex. The violence is minor and not graphic. I rated this one a four out of five stars. Because of the strength of the story, I’ll rank this one at number five.

 

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