Broken Allegiance by Mark Young

By Nike Chillemi –

An accident that killed his son, shattered Detective Tom Kagan’s life. The offending driver, a gangbanger, ran from the scene and was never brought to justice. Now back from a temporary assignment with the FBI,Kagan’s once again hunting down gang members in Santa Rosa, CA.

The author pulled me into the emotional turmoil that is Tom Kagan’s life. Although he deeply loves his wife Sara, since the accident, he has shut down all emotion and is often remote from her. We see Tom with all of his warts. He drinks too much and is also a first class cheapskate who begrudges tips he gives to waitresses.

Having been called out to the murder crime scene of Paco, a high ranking, seemingly untouchable, “all good” member of the Nuestra Familia (NF) street gang, he knows this could become a no holds barred fight within the gang, with innocent people getting hurt along the way. What he doesn’t know is a gang leader named Ghost is calling the shots from his cell within Pelican Bay State Prison, CA.

Kagan has a history with the Hispanic gangs since the accident that killed his son—a bad one. His sergeant thinks he’s a loose cannon who should be retired back to patrol, but the chief wants Tom in gangs. The detective has been receiving photographs of himself, his wife, and his partner’s wife with the message: we’re watching you. His partner, grounded in the spirituality of his Christian religion, is a sharp contrast from Tom’s depression and rage. Kagan keeps knowledge of this surveillance from his supervisors out of fear he will be removed from working on gangs, which is where he gets intelligence with which to protect his wife.

When Kagan and Hector Garcia, a gang expert with the Special Service Unit (SSU), visit Ghost in Pelican Bay, the gangbanger taunts Tom. He says he was the one driving the car that killed Tom’s young son, years ago. Agent Garcia has to hold Tom back. Ghost screams at Tom, “You’re a dead man.”

After an assault on Ghost in the prison, he’s transferred from Pelican Bay to a community hospital, from which he escapes. Now the gangbanger is hunting Tom Kagan and his partner Detective Bill Stevenson. There is an emotionally wrenching scene where Tom and his wife go to his partner’s home for dinner, unaware that Ghost lurks outside watching the house. Bill reads his young son a story and then he and Tom listen as the boy says his prayers before bed. They have no clue there is evil lurking outside.

It is obvious the author has personal, career experience in law enforcement with gangs. He is totally successful in getting across how senseless gang violence is, that nobody gets out alive from a gang. Regardless of the demand for loyalty by the gang, there is no loyalty within. Eventually every gang member is killed by a rival gang, or by a stronger member of his own gang who seeks power. This novel is well written and readers who are thrilled by a good detective novel will love this one’s authenticity.

The Darkest Valley by Rick Dewhurst

Reviewed by Nike Chillemi –

The Darkest Valley by Rick Dewhurst is a profound novel, and like all profound books is not always easy to read. I’m reminded of an old cocktail party cartoon I once saw, I believe in the New Yorker. A man races toward his wife, through a chic living room filled with partygoers, a highball in his hand, “Niles Peterson is coming. He’s read a book that changed his life. Run!”

This is a story of an ordained minister in Canada’s Cowichan Valley who is about to have his church taken from him. The elders want somebody at the helm who appears a more seemly than Pastor Tom Pollard. His heart for the natives on the nearby reserve and in his center, along with his penchant to help the more degenerate elements of the community, has not endeared him to the most powerful elements in his church.

The novel is not action packed, and in fact is rather depressing, but I kept turning pages. I didn’t like the pastor’s wife, Ruby Pollard, due to her nasty streak which I felt predated her terminal cancer. Her dishonesty in her marriage also turned me off. However, I agreed with her. I would’ve liked her husband Tom to work up a bit of gumption now and then. It became awfully painful watching him fail. And yet, as I turned the pages, I began to care about them a great deal. I also found myself chuckling from time-to-time, as they could be quite pithy. It was apparent they loved each other deeply and were doing absolutely the best they could.

If the most interesting character is Jesse, the self-absorbed atheist/nominal Catholic editor of the town’s small newspaper, the one I liked the best is Will, the half-breed Christian whose new found faith in Christ has angered his native father and his tribe. After Will is kidnapped, I wanted to slap Pastor Tom for having been so listless and apathetic when Will repeatedly tried to tell the man of the cloth of this coming danger. At one point in the story, Jesse says to Tom, “With Christians like you in the lead, it’s a wonder anyone ever joins your flock.” I have to agree.

At another juncture, worldly and jaded Jesse says he’s happy Tom and Ruby don’t hide behind the typical self-righteous Christian façade. He’s thrilled to find they’re as messed up as the rest of us. I do think this is very important to many nonbelievers, especially intellectual nonbelievers whose razor sharp minds have not saved them from the mess, pain, and dysfunction of life. I would highly recommend this novel to them.

My feeling is this is the “every church” story . . . and my meaning is akin to what is meant by the “every man” story. I’m sure there’s more of Tom Pollard and his wife Ruby at the helm in churches all over the globe than most Christians would like to admit. After all, church leaders are only people, calling notwithstanding, and people all have feet of clay. Church politics in churches in every mountain and glen resemble the unkindness and backstabbing in this novel, of this I’m sure. It is obvious the author is a pastor.

CHARISSE by Fay Lamb

Reviewed by Nike Chillemi –

I most often review murder mysteries, thrillers, police procedurals, and if I’m up against a wall a romantic suspense. That’s tongue in cheek, but you get it. So why am I reviewing CHARISSE, a romance novel? Well, because there’s plenty of mystery in this story, the kinds of mysteries and dilemmas life throws at individuals. And, it’s well written.

Main characters Charisse Wellman and Judge Gideon Tabor are both hiding something. Add to the mix a jealous harridan in stilettos named Delilah, who lives up to her name and you’ve got one interesting story.

Charisse carries pain, insecurity, and disappointment from her high school days, when she was quite overweight. Now as a widow who has just lost her beloved husband, she’s trying to raise her young son. It becomes apparent she must give up her dream of law school and go to work to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. She finds herself interviewing with Gideon Tabor, a local criminal court judge, with whom she had an unpleasant run-in many years ago. But does he remember her? Whatever the case, that incident from long ago, disheartening as it was, is not the only bone she has to pick with him . . . not by a long shot.

Of course, she aces the interview and begins clerking for Judge Tabor. Just as she’s hoping she can put the past behind her and settle into some kind of normal work routine, Judge Delilah James begins playing office politics. Using underhanded tactics, this vixen in judicial robes, turns what could’ve been a pleasant working experience into a nightmare where Charisse is in fear of losing the job she so desperately needs.

On top of this Charisse is battling deep resentment toward the hit-and-run driver who killed her husband and the judicial system that allowed him to get away with it. No matter how much she prays, she can’t get over the bitterness she harbors.

I immediately warmed to V.J., Charisse’s young son. He is the sweetest child, and at times, the pain of the loss of his father is palpable. However, if there is a flaw in this novel, in my opinion, it would be that this darling little boy is just a tad too perfect at times. However, I have a penchant for obviously flawed characters. Other readers might not agree on this point.

There are Christian themes running throughout the entire story. As the characters develop and grow emotionally they attain greater spiritual maturity as well. This is a read I could recommend to any fifteen-year-old, as well as anyone’s great-grandmother. Although romance novels are most often read by women, this is a story I believe many a man would enjoy.

Review of Walks Alone by Sandi Rog

By Nike Chillemi –

WALKS ALONE captivated and mesmerized me at times. No wonder it won in the Grace Award 2012 Action-Adventure/Western/Epic Fiction category.

This is a well-written epic novel beginning in Holland and ending in the old west. I loved the way it opened with the tenderness of Anna’s widowed father aboard ship. It was hard not to get involved in the father’s dream of traveling to Denver City with seven-year-old Anna to start a new life. Unfortunately, Anna’s father falls ill in New York City and passes away. She is left in the care her father’s brother for six terrible years.

The scenes with Anna’s abusive uncle were brutal and fully engaging. After Anna escapes from her uncle, she travels westward by train, and finally joins a wagon train where she’s not well treated. There is a fascinating, though not explicit, bathing scene in a river, where an exhausted Anna allows herself to relax and find relief from the intense and life-threatening heat of the prairie. When half-breed Jean-Marc comes upon her with a small band of angry-braves, the reader is hooked between instant knowledge of the hero’s strong attraction to her and the extreme danger she’s in. Anna is taken by this brave’s strange blue-green eyes and can’t help wondering how it is that he speaks English better than she does.

Ms. Rog understands Native American life in that era quite well. I appreciated her attention to the details of Cheyenne tribal life. She did an excellent job of showing the anger and murderous rage of the braves as well as the prejudice of the settlers and their inability to see Native Americans as people, which led to Indian massacres.

Both Anna/Walks Alone and Jean Marc/White Eagle are flawed and well written. White Eagle’s poetic declaration of how his love is so large and encompassing that he sees and hears Walks Alone everywhere, even in the wind, was superb. He tells her of his pain at having caught her engaging in conversation with his sworn enemy, the man who led the deadly raid against his tribe. Through this, the author conveys how painful it is for Father God to witness His children engaging with idols. Beautifully done. Touches the reader at a deep spiritual level.

My only problem was with Anna’s continued insistence on finding herself and her pulling away from White Eagle after their Native American marriage is consummated and then again after his poetic declaration of love. I’m not sure such personal enlightenment was high on the list in those days. However, the author did manage to sweep me back into the story. Then the story would move on and carry me through thrilling bandit attacks, chilling raids on White Eagle’s tribe by a rogue Cheyenne warrior and his band of braves. A fantastic read, which I highly recommend.

River Rising by Athol Dickson

Review By Nike Chillemi –

Dickson writes with poetical grace, using the historical flood on the Mississippi River of 1927 as a backdrop. I delighted in reading this work with language that flowed like literary fiction while leading me into a complex mystery story. Significant issues are raised, questions asked.

Reverend Hale Poser, a black man with piercing blue eyes, leaves a high paying and respected position as chaplain in a New Orleans orphanage and travels to Pilotville, LA, where he takes a job as janitor in the Negro infirmary. Poser was an orphan and has reason to believe he will find out about his ancestry in Pilotville. His arrival makes a few in the town suspicious, including Dorothy Truett, a nurse in the infirmary, who it also attracted to him.

Under the wing of Papa DeGroot, a rich white businessman who built the infirmary, the Negro community has felt secure and largely untouched by the Jim Crow atmosphere pervading the south at that time. At the infirmary, Rosa Lamont agonizes with a breech birth until Hale Poser massages her protruding belly, turning the baby around. Baby Hannah is born. Some in the town see this as a miracle. Others fear the janitor is a flimflam man. Her parents rejoice and then the unthinkable happens. The baby vanishes. Both white and colored residents of Pilotville search the swamp and Hale Poser learns this is not the first baby to disappear. Baby disappearances have been going on for years. Reluctantly, Dorothy Truett takes Poser to the grave of a woman whose baby was stolen long ago.

Jean Tibbets, harbormaster of sorts, thought the troubles were over. Then this strange colored preacher came to town. Tibbets saw the janitor praying with arms outstretched near the white church, which made him uneasy. Now another colored baby has vanished. Was that coincidence? There are those in Pilotville who think this Hale Poser asks too many questions about the infants who went missing long ago. Some fear he’s stirring up all kinds of trouble. He asks why the whites and colored folk never worship together. Both the Negro and white preachers put him off, but he doesn’t quit asking. This reveals festering antagonism and resentment that is seldom voiced in Pilotville.

When all others except the baby’s father have given up the search for Baby Hannah, Hale Poser continues in his efforts to find the infant. As if baby snatching weren’t bad enough, then there’s a real nasty turn in the plot. As horrid as events become, Hale Poser’s spirituality and determination to serve God shine through. Was he a miracle worker? A prophet?

This novel got to me. As Hale Poser questions his own spiritual motivations, I had no choice but to look at mine. Athol Dickson has a unique and beautiful voice. The second edition of this novel has just come out and it is well worth the read.

« Previous Page — Next Page »