Going, going gone!

Beyond the Will of God: A Jill Simpson Mystery by David Biddle

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Like a legendary major leaguer pointing to center field on an 0-2 count, David Biddle sets an almost unachievable goal with Beyond the Will of God: A Jill Simpson Mystery, and that’s before we even get past the title. Before you read this book, read Mr. Biddle’s “From the Author” piece on Amazon in which he talks about “allegory, myth, and symbolic storytelling.” Biddle is talking vibrations, the nature of human perception, the soul, emotion, all the big mysteries. And that’s cosmic mysteries, not the kind the hard-boiled detective or crusading cop solve. So how do you take the yin of expanding consciousness and intra-dimensional travel and cram it against the yang of a revered, insanely-popular, convention-filled genre like the classic detective mystery? After all, there are rules to be followed, right? Well just as yin and yang do not actually negate each other, so too the juxtaposition of psychedelic enlightenment and gritty, methodical police work contribute to a whole that masterfully exceeds the sum of its parts.

Our very first clue to the method behind the madness is Cecil the scientific-minded researcher exploring worlds that no self-respecting scientist would touch with a 10-foot pipette. ”OK,” the skeptical reader thinks, “maybe this IS doable. Just so long as we don’t get too complicated.” What follows, of course, is a shotgun blast of random complexity. If Biddle had a chance in hell of making this all work, it just went up in smoke. But just in case he pulls it off, let’s keep reading. And off you go: never really believing he can do it without somehow “cheating” but wholeheartedly rooting for Sergeant Simpson every step of the way. In the end of course, Biddle is true to both the yin and yang. This story is as taut, precise, believable and rewarding a cop mystery as you could hope for from any of the masters while still asking the “big questions” and offering not the answers but perhaps a new pair of glasses with which to continue the search.

To this day, there is disagreement about whether Babe Ruth really pointed to center field back in 1932. There is no disagreement, however, that he crushed the hell out of the next pitch. How does something that amazing happen? Talent and hard work. When you finish the story, continue reading through the references, resources and acknowledgements. David Biddle invested years of hard work to make this amazing story happen. So sit back, have some peanuts and a cold one and enjoy watching Biddle hit it out of the park.




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