Customer Reviews

Deadly Discrimination

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Somebody has murdered the most unpopular businessman in Kingsbury. Most folks in this picturesque northern California town are content to believe it was a 17-year-old Latino boy with a police record. The boy's knife was found in the victim's back, and the murder took place soon after the businessman foreclosed on the boy's parents' business. But, if truth be told, the real reason most folks in Kingsbury are content to blame this particular suspect is because the boy is Latino.

Prejudice, you see, is as much a point of conflict as murder in Lorie Ham's latest mystery, DEADLY DISCRIMINATION. And that's what makes it so special, and one I highly recommend.

Fans of Ham's previous mysteries, MURDER IN FOUR PART HARMONY and THE TROUBLE WITH TENORS, may be saddened to learn that her gospel singing, single mom, crime solver Alexandra Walters does not appear in this new novel. If so, they won't be disappointed for long, because her new crime solver, Pastor Mike Raffles, is as tenacious and charming as Ms.Walters. It also won't hurt that Walters' private investigator boyfriend, Stephen Carlucci, is Pastor Mike's best friend and a major supporting character.

For once the murderer really is the last person you would expect, although Ham plays fair with the clues throughout the story. Ham also does an excellent job of presenting the kind of prejudice that can exist beneath the surface of even a quaint town as Kingsbury or in a so-called "enlightened" state as California, as well as the type of resistance that can arise and challenge bigotry when it is brought to light. Pastor Mike believes that most people, rather or not they are Christian, are good and will prove it if given a chance. In DEADLY DISCRIMINATION he puts his faith in people on the line, and, like a true hero, doesn't flinch from his beliefs even when things look their darkest.

The problem of illegal aliens is a hot button topic across the country, especially after President Bush's recent proposal to offer amnesty to illegals now working in the United States. What too many Americans once dismissed as a problem for Californians, Arizonans and Texans has become one that has and will continue to affect people throughout our country. In the months ahead there will be a lot of articles and textbooks published about the ramifications and possible solutions to this problem. But these will all be non-fiction, while one of the great things about fiction is its ability to take any topic and humanize it by running it through its paces through a series of realistic events.

DEADLY DISCRIMINATION is just such a book.
Ham sets you in the middle of a mystery that involves illegal aliens, presenting clues at the same time presenting different sides to the problems of illegals. While challenging readers to solve the businessman's murder, Ham likewise challenges them to decide what their beliefs about this problem are or reconsider previously held beliefs. This is just the kind of story that a master wordsmith like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who never backed away from the challenge of championing a cause in his fiction, would appreciate.

DEADLY DISCRIMINATION will entertain you and make you think. If that isn't as good as it gets, I don't know what is.

Steven Philip Jones is the author of THE BUSHWHACKERS, a new western coming in August from Avalon Books, and the mystery-adventure KING OF HARLEM. Jones has written over 60 comic book stories, including THE ADVENTURE OF THE OPERA GHOST, THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL & MR. HOLMES, and the original series STREET HEROES 2005 and NIGHTLINGER. He is presently working on a new young reader fantasy, TALISMEN (www.angelfire.com/comics/talismen). People are welcome to visit his website at www.stevenpjones.com.

An ice cream truck is robbed. No one thinks much about it. Everyone is preparing for the town Fiesta celebration and parade. Pastor Mike, who is new to town, has no idea why the Fiesta seems so important to everyone. So he attends to try to find out. He works part-time for the local paper and is happy he was asked to write an article about the parade. After the bike race, he heads to the parade. Then Marvin Toews is found dead. At first they think it is a heart attack, but soon it is determined it was murder. Since Eddie has a police record and is Mexican, he is quickly arrested.

Pastor Mike does not believe Eddie killed Mr. Toews. So he and Steve, his best friend and a P.I., begin to ask lots of questions to try to find out who else could have wanted Toews dead. Unfortunately what they find is that almost everyone in town didn't like him. With a plethora of suspects, they begin to whittle the number down.

During their investigation, Pastor Mike uncovers the All American Club. Apparently many upstanding citizens of Kingsbury are members and they don't like minorities. He can't believe such a thing can be in town, let alone in his church. Toews apparently a leader in this group.

Things begin to happen to Pastor Mike. He and Steve continue to investigate. Can they find the killer before Pastor Mike is either thrown out of his church or seriously injured?

This is a terrific Christian mystery. I love her characters and setting. She really has the small town atmosphere captured. I love Pastor Mike. He is the type of pastor every small-town church needs. He cares about the citizens of town and always wants to help. I like that he rides his bike and doesn't have much money. This is so very real.

The story line is well written as well. Until near the end of the book, I had no idea who the killer was. She gave lots of good clues but never totally gave it away.

I highly recommend this book.

In Deadly Discrimination, Lorie Ham has plotted an intriguing mystery involving a small-town preacher who faces the politics and ugly bigotry in a small California town and the same problems in his own church and even in the Christian radio station where he works part time. Unfortunately, many of the obstacles Pastor Mike must overcome are far too realistic. As usual, Lorie has written a compelling story.

Marilyn Meredith, author of the latest in the Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series, Intervention.

When Pastor Mike Raffles moved to the farming community of Kingsbury, California he thought he was retreating to a quiet town where all of the neighbors were friendly and where he could build a peaceful congregation. However, he soon realizes that the quiet town is not so quiet, as a businessman's dealings are enraging nearly everyone since he will soon be forcing many local shops to go out of business. When he is found stabbed to death just before leading the town's parade in a fair suspicion immediately falls on Eddie Martinez, a Mexican-American teenager with a history of juvenile crime and whose family Mr. Toews had recently engaged in an angry confrontation. Appeals from Eddie's family proclaiming his innocence soon has Mike questioning the quick arrest and the reasons behind it. There's a plethora of suspects, as it emerges that even Toews' family had reasons to hate him.

Just as disturbing to Mike as the murder is the discovery, following his spot on a radio show, of racism and hostility towards the Mexican-Americans who live in the community. When the local white supremacy organization begins to pressure Mike to stop his pleas for peace and his support of Eddie Mike puts both his position within the church and his life at risk.

Mike Raffles is an engaging hero who is at peace with himself and his beliefs and who wants to create the best congregation possible. Mike's relationship with Steve Carlucci, his childhood best friend, is appealing and very humorous as the two harass each other with the nicknames "Preacher Boy" and "Heathen Boy." The two have an usual friendship, as the private detective (crossing over from Lorie Ham's other series featuring Alexandra Walters) is an atheist whom Mike continues to lead attempt to lead towards the Christian faith. The two make a good team though, as Steve provides the muscle and street smarts while Mike brings in the heart. Ham also perfectly describes the setting of the California farming community and the clash of cultures that occurs between whites and the Mexican-Americans. Although this is labeled a "Christian" mystery the engaging characters and universal theme of racism make it accessible to all readers. This is an enjoyable read full of humor, suspense, and heart.

Pastor Mike Raffles glows with optimism as he relocates from New Orleans to Kingsbury, California. However, the quiet simple life of a small town farming community seems more like home when someone murders Toews, an individual universally detested though he was to be the Grand Marshal in the upcoming parade. After a public incident between Toews and the Martinez family and the location of the body, police hone in on the Mexican-American community. They quickly arrest teenager Eddie Martinez.

Pastor Mike has problems with the rush to judgment as he feels many townsfolk regardless of race, religion or national origin had motives to kill the obnoxious victim. With the help of a private sleuth, Mike makes his own inquiries and begins to believe that a form of de facto prejudicial profiling led to the arrest of Eddie without looking at the full possibilities. Mike needs to uncover the real culprit and expose discrimination for how worthless and negatively crippling a practice it is.

DEADLY DISCRIMINATION is categorized as a Christian amateur sleuth, but though Mike is a pastor and provides sermons against discrimination, the tale is more a deep look at the implications and fallout from prejudice. Mike is a delightful protagonist who seems to have it together, but loses a bit of his inner peace by the novel's end as the incidents impact him (he is human). The townsfolk for the most part are decent pious people yet many look down on the Mexican-Americans living there as being beneath them. The message is deep, but it is cleverly interwoven into the who-done-it investigation by Mike and pals so that the audience regardless of religion will appreciate a powerful mystery.

Harriet Klausner