Review
Rachel Clark left her career as a New York lawyer for a shot at her dream of writing books. The man who had been her partner in the courtroom and her lover at home, Mark Greystone, refused to stand by her and left. For two Summers she rented a place in the small town of Crystal Lake. During that time the Postmaster, Alex Bentley, had witnessed Rachel's manuscripts for Legal Briefs be rejected dozens of times. When Rachel mentioned giving up if the manuscript was rejected again, Alex broke several postal regulations by holding her manuscript for one full day and spending the night making a few little changes to the story. Changes that sold the book, launched Rachel's writing career, and hurt their friendship that had recently become more. While Rachel was in New York promoting her new book and writing the next, Alex was promoted to Director of Postal Operations in Albany. The two are brought back together when Alex was arrested for allegedly embezzling two hundred and seventy-three thousand dollars from the post office while he worked in Crystal Lake! Rachel stopped everything to be his attorney, especially when she found out that Mark Greystone was the one trying to lock him up! **** This story combined small town life with the big city crowds. It showed surprising insight into the daily life of postal workers and readers will find the author seemed to do much research on the various duties in the job! The book has several sub-plots that will keep the readers involved and wondering what will happen next. However, the ending will leave many readers satisfied and many others frustrated! Very good reading within these pages! **** --Huntress Book Reviews
Who would ever think such sexual passion is steaming up the mail-sorting room? I will never look at those public servants across the counter quite the same way, after reading Raven West's novel. West has taken some rather common characters: postal personnel, attorneys, law-enforcement, and made them extraordinarily interesting. These are people with all the self-doubts and latent nobility in each of us. Postmaster Alex Bentley, Thoreau-esquely withdrawn in the secure world of upstate Crystal Lake, NY, commits a major USPS no-no...and pays the price. Talented and confused author/attorney Rachel Clark escapes the Big Apple for her Walden Pond period. She has been hurt in love before, and Crystal Lake is the place to recoup, so she mistakenly believes. Mark Greystone, like any good antagonist, is a complex, believable DA. His drive causes damage to Alex, Rachel, and himself. The knowledge West has of the politics and internal affairs of the USPS is quite impressive. The way she shares that in FIRST CLASS MALE makes for a deserved appreciation of the people who are the best postal system in the world. --Robert Fulton from Charlotte, NC
Very few outsiders have taken up championing the good of the Postal Service over the years, let alone putting their thoughts to paper. Author Raven West is one such person, and she did just that in her latest book, First Class Male, (The Lighthouse Press, Inc.) Other books have been written in the past, chronicling the going postal phrase, but they concentrated on the violent side of the term. Ms. West doesn t do that. She has taken the phrase, and through the character of a small-town postmaster expounded upon what is good with the Service. In it s own self praising way First Class Male appears directed towards the tight-knit family of postal employees. If that is the case, then it has hit its target. That s not to say it s not a book non-postal employees would not appreciate - because it is.. From the beginning, Ms. West describes PM Bentley at 32 years old as the fastest rising employee in his district to go from letter carrier to postmaster of Crystal Lake. She paints him as just an average guy, who hooked up with the post office to pass the time. In doing so she develops his character as a person who has come to love his job, and is extremely offended at every public attack. A trait so readily identifiable within the walls of all post offices. Because the author did such a complete job of researching her subject she didn t have to take liberties with the truth, like so many other authors of fiction do. First Class Male is not a tear jerking, good guy gets the girl in the end type of book. No, not at all. It is a book that provides all postal employees with the feeling there is someone from outside of our realm who cares about how we are constantly taking it on the chin, and that is refreshing. All cliches aside, First Class Male delivers. --Thom Green, National Association of Letter Carriers
About the Author
RAVEN WEST received her Juris Doctorate from the Southern California Institute of Law, in Ventura California in 2007. She is the author of Red Wine for Breakfast and First Class Male and Journey to Dimension Nine tales of erotica by FireBird. Her short story Lilith in the Garden is included in the anthology The Shortcut, 20 Stories to Get You from Here to There . In June of 2006, she published her non-fiction memoir Blood Tastes Lousy With Scotch How I rescued my father from greedy cousins, thieving attorneys and the Florida Guardianship System, under her given name Robin C. Westmiller. She is the President and founder of the National Association to Stop Guardian Abuse and a member of the Ventura County Bar Association, the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. Author s Guild, Ventura County Writers Club, Small Publishers, Authors and Writers Network, Southern California Book Publicists Assn.
