Into the Fire

When you've seen the depths of human depravity, I understand why you might want to portray it in its emptiness, ugliness, and fullness to create a realistic crime novel. George Collord does exactly that in Hear The Wind Blow – and it's brutal to read. It's full of profanity, vulgarity, depravity, and cruelty. But it's also a story with an older wounded, humbled, sensitive hero in Delroy Church, a bit of a living legend in Los Angeles homocide detective work, who has opted for the lesser fanfare position of a deputy sheriff in a small northern California town where virtually nobody knows his past celebrity – until a single human bone is discovered amidst a bunch of animal bones by hikers who think they should tell law enforcement about what they happened to find just in case. And that is one reason why I finished it which I admit was difficult for me. I also waded through it because this author's "creds" are exceptional and an author friend (former law enforcement) announced the novel written by his friend. 

Roy Church puts off for as long as he can investigating the identity of the single human bone found in the foothills of Mt. Shasta by hikers. But extenuating circumstances require his expertise and he grudgingly accepts the assignment when less seasoned detectives muff another possibly related homicide first thought to be a suicide. Throughout this tangled, stretched, and crazily intertwined saga, there is one common thread: a man who's been in and out of "the pen" twice, who takes care of his frail mama, who desires his dead cousin's wife, who can speak like an educated man but just as easily revert to crude slang, and is no dummy when it comes to how law enforcement works. 

One of the highpoints of Roy's investigation is his hiring of an intern "Kat" who is studying forensic anthropology. Her enthusiasm is boundless, her intelligence and aptitude for learning detective deductive reasoning are all refreshing and encouraging to Roy for a variety of reasons. She's a much needed character in this story of excessive darkness.

Hear The Wind Blow is an ultra-complex police procedural demonstrating the extreme effort and determination it takes to solve intertwined crimes with multiple victims and contributors to their deaths. Many peripheral undesirable characters permeate this story, a few psychopaths (both male and female) among them. It demonstrates how brilliant and in contrast how utterly stupid the same characters can be in their criminal exercises. Hard, depraved human beings fill this book, and I can't recommend reading it to anyone I know. However, those that read and enjoy these kinds of novels have given it the 5 star treatment on Amazon. 

Father, there are portions of this world who follow the enemy of our souls and seem to relish it. Evil does exist and flow through some who've allowed it to become the largest part of them. May we all repent for anything we've done wrong and stay close to you at all times. Thank you, Jesus, for providing us with the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the only way to our Father. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.