Customer Reviews

Three Strikes

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Three Strikes is a harsh story about two men, Rey Quintana and Noah Conway. Rey is a young college student with a sketchy background. In a fit of stupidity he boosts a pair of earrings, worth $450, and gets caught. Charged with shoplifting and grand theft, he is facing a possible 22 years in prison, due to California's three strikes law. What's a young man to do? He is bailed out, and immediately skips. Noah Conway is the bail enforcement agent (bounty hunter) sent on his trail.

Three Strikes is a tragedy. Rey is a Hamlet figure, constantly hesitating on his actions in the new life he is in. It is not a role he wants, and is stubbornly hesitating on jumping in full board. He doesn't want to believe he has crossed the line, and constantly attempts to pull back from the abyss he is already in. Like Hamlet, each hesitation and half step results in things getting worse, and more bodies piling up.

Noah Conway is a man with a half life. He used to be a cop with a family, now he's a bail enforcement officer with alimony and an estranged teenage daughter. He is constantly in a state of change. In this story, he changes the most of all, but whether it is for good of ill is up to the reader.

Three Strikes hits home because it could so easily happen, and probably has happened over and over. It shows what has happened when political ambition mixes with justice. Rey is a clear victim of this; the three strikes law, a political tool to be tough on crime, is so poorly written that it allows many way too many loopholes to be exploited by unscrupulous district attorneys. Rey is charged, because the ADA assigned wants to run for political office, and wants to look tough on crime. No one believes that Rey should be imprisoned all of that time. But the political fortunes of one man dictate a human sacrifice (As such) should take place, and Rey's number is up. This has shades of Jean Valjean all over it, with Conway as Javert. A poor man commits a trivial offence and is forced to run for the rest of his life.

As I read this piece there were many, "There but for the grace of God" moments, in both Noah and Rey's life. This is a very human story that asks (without asking) many questions, and like all good stories it doesn't answer them.