El Gavilan Explores Racial Divides and Corruption
In an intriguing crime novel exploring explosive racial tensions among whites, naturalized Mexican-Americans, and illegal immigrants, author Craig McDonald delves into the darkness within as his characters slide down the slippery slope of situational ethics. El Gavilan is the story of a new police chief who begins his assignment with a particularly nasty murder on his hands. An American citizen born in Mexico is raped and savagely beaten to death in the uneasy town of New Austin, Ohio.
Chief Tell Lyon finds himself grappling with a dodgy editor/reporter, two sheriffs with different views on immigration—both legal and illegal, gang members, a beautiful woman, and violence that begets violence. McDonald threads backstory explaining how his characters came to be the people they are throughout the story of the investigation. The chief himself, though seemingly a by-the-book Boy Scout, hides secrets from his recent past as a Border Patrol officer. He and the two sheriffs represent graduating degrees of morality.
In the early chapters, when McDonald switches focus among characters and shifts from present to past to present, some readers may not appreciate his efforts or style, but as one gets deeper into the story of each character as well as the investigation into the murder, El Gavilan becomes absorbing. Fairly early in the book, McDonald nearly names the murderer, giving the reader an edge that the different law enforcement agencies involved don’t have.
McDonald explores values, attitudes, emotion, ethics, relationships, and the nature of intolerance in a satisfying, thought-provoking novel. Well-developed characters with unsteady moral compasses populate the pages of El Gavilan, giving the reader much to consider and reconsider.
Follow Technorati