The Lawman: Broken People – from the case files of Sheriff Will Diaz (ret.), A story of Redemption

The Lawman: Broken People by William R. Ablan (aka Richard Muniz)

What a powerful story, with a rich community of compelling characters, set in southern Colorado.

Town marshal Pam Harmon is wounded during a law enforcement operation at a drug house. The chaos triggers this former Marine MP, a widow with a small son, into a crisis. She doesn’t want to wade through a major trauma from the past and is ready to give up. Pam is confronted by her friends, including Detective Will Diaz’s wife Jewell (who is a counselor) who help her begin the process of healing. Broken People is about PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and the need to work through it.

It’s also about policework, bad choices, family dynamics, and second chances. I was drawn into the Diaz family and their community. At the end of the book is a list of PTSD resources.

Broken People is the third novel in the author’s The Lawman Series. This one may be read alone, but you’ll want to read the others as well. You’ll appreciate Detective Diaz’s delightful family unit, along with his thought processes as he handles difficult characters and situations as a follower of Christ. Someone should make a movie of this one.

Here is a recent blog post about how this book came about.

About the Author

Will Ablan, AKA Richard Muniz, is a native of the San Luis Valley in Southern Colorado. Raised a cowboy, his sights were set on distant horizons. Light years away in fact. He studied Astronomy at Adams State University, and in his senior year, began to suspect he was taking a degree in something he couldn’t get a job in.

It was a suspicion that would prove correct. After graduating, and not finding a job, he began looking elsewhere. He had a gained some Law Enforcement experience working with the Campus Police force, and so began applying and test for local departments. He figured it would be a cold day in Hell before they hired him.

Events would prove he was totally mistaken in that, and he ended up working as a Law Enforcement officer for over twenty years. Somewhere in the middle of all this, events would dictate that he step out of his comfort zone, and he enlisted in the United States Army as a Military Policeman. His experience as a civilian police officer proved invaluable to him in the Army as he worked undercover narcotics, plain clothes investigations, and VIP security. During this he deployed to the Persian Gulf for the Gulf War.

After the Gulf War, he worked Emergency Management in the San Luis Valley.

Eventually he moved into the Information Technology field, and has worked in it for the past twenty years. He’s considered an expert in VMware, Security, and Auditing, and has written extensively on those subjects.

He and his wife currently reside in Greeley, Colorado.

Policework is where good and evil meet. – William Ablan/Richard Muniz