This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. N. Lombardi Jr. will be awarding $15 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
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When a homeless war veteran is beaten to death by the police, stormy protests ensue, engulfing a small New Jersey town. Soon after, three cops are gunned down.
A multi-state manhunt is underway for a cop killer on the loose. And Dr. Tessa Thorpe, a veteran's counselor, is caught up in the chase.
Donald Darfield, an African-American Iraqi war vet, war-time buddy of the beaten man, and one of Tessa's patients, is holed up in a mountain cabin. Tessa, acting on instinct, sets off to find him, but the swarm of law enforcement officers gets there first, leading to Darfield's dramatic capture.
Now, the only people separating him from the lethal needle of state justice are Tessa and ageing blind lawyer, Nathaniel Bodine. Can they untangle the web tightening around Darfield in time, when the press and the justice system are baying for revenge?
My Review...
Sometimes when you begin a book, you just know it’s going to be something you want to read. I’m not exactly sure how to describe that feeling. It doesn’t necessarily have to be an exciting scene that starts in the first paragraph. I think it is the flow of the writing, the kind that keeps your interest. This book had that flow, at least it did until it blasted me in the face with action. Wow, what a start for a novel. I was appreciative of his writing; mad at the story and the injustice. I was a little of everything and that is because the author and his words made me that way. That means having the talent to write mere words on paper and create a huge amount of emotion in your readers.
Injustice, unfairness, unwarranted violence, our cops and our military, are easy subjects to write about and evoke emotions as I said in the previous paragraph. They are also subjects to create interesting characters around. That happened here and some really enjoyable characters came out of this book. Characters you hope to read more about.
This book has been categorized as being a part of the legal/thriller genre. I’m not sure that’s quite where I’d put it. Actually, it’s rather difficult to describe. It definitely is a thriller and it has a lot of legal activity in it, but it’s almost crime fiction or a mystery too. So, I guess if you like to read any of these genres, you’d enjoy it. There are a lot of points here for discussion and some thought-provoking ideas. An enjoyable read and yet a somewhat deep book.
Lombardi Jr. has at least 2 other books published that I can see ratings on, and all seem to be well rated.
Read an excerpt...
Tessa had given much thought as to how she should dress for the occasion. Her first instinct was her Karen Kane pants suit, but dismissed that idea to wear her copper-brown print kaftan in its stead.
Now, with its folds caught in the vigorous September breeze, giving the illusion of a multitude of miniature flags fluttering around her, her thick locks of hair dancing around her head, she spoke to the crowd, slowly, deliberately taking her time. “Hello, my fellow citizens.” She stopped to survey the mass of people standing in front of her. Dramatic pauses replete with eye contact, if not overdone, were quite effective in getting one’s message across. Not surprisingly, Tessa knew how to get her message across, a special art in the realm of behavioral scientists. Public relations firms, advertising companies, political campaigns, all hired an army of psychologists to sell a product. And Tessa Thorpe, as someone who had thirty years’ experience as a criminal psychiatrist, could sell as well as any of them.
“We are here today for two reasons, two very important reasons that are essential to our well-being in a modern society. Freedom is one, and justice is the other.”
Enthusiastic cheers.
“When the call for war came, we were told that our enemies hated our freedoms. We were told that the citizens of Iraq had been held hostage by a ruthless dictator who denied his own people these freedoms. Our invasion of that country was sold to us as Operation Iraqi Freedom. And so we sent our young men and women off to war, the most traumatic experience a human being could ever go through, with the belief that they were fighting for liberty and freedom. And yet, one of those whom we had sent…had come back to us only to have his own freedom denied. His single offence at the time he was approached by law enforcement officers was that he was exercising his freedom to stand on a street corner.”
This elicited a roar from the crowd.
“This is not merely tragic, it is an act of deplorable fraud, being denied the very thing he fought for!”
More heartfelt cheering.
“When I was young, we were made to pledge allegiance, an oath that ended with the phrase, ‘with liberty and justice for all.’ Well, Jay Felson was denied liberty…let us make sure he is NOT DENIED JUSTICE!”
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
N. Lombardi Jr, the N for Nicholas, has spent over half his life in Africa, Asia, and the Middle
In 1997, while visiting Lao People's Democratic Republic, he witnessed the remnants of a secret war that had been waged for nine years, among which were children wounded from leftover cluster bombs. Driven by what he saw, he worked on The Plain of Jars for the next eight years.
Nick maintains a website with content that spans most aspects of the novel: The Secret War, Laotian culture, Buddhism etc. http://plainofjars.net
His second novel, Journey Towards a Falling Sun, is set in the wild frontier of northern Kenya.
His latest novel, Justice Gone was inspired by the fatal beating of a homeless man by police.
Nick now lives in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Visit his goodreads page:
Buy links:
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Book Depository
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