Ways to be Wicked

De: Jim Christ

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Ways to be Wicked is a suspense-filled mystery and crime drama, but it is a great deal more. This is a novel of ineluctable seductions, tests of loyalty and dangerous friendships. Tavish is an ordinary man who, faced with the terror of self-realization and of losing all that is important to him, takes extraordinary action to save those he loves. Several features of the novel make it fresh and unique, as follows: • The principal setting is a contemporary Southwestern high school campus, which allows a variety of thematic societal problems to be examined in microcosm: e.g. cultural identity, educational effectiveness, sexual exploitation, students' civil liberties, gang activity, police use of force • It is a mystery/suspense drama told in the first person by a school administrator (Enrique Tavish), but the story unfolds through characterization and the development of complex relationships: Tavish's friendship with a co-worker policeman, his lasting attachments to his deceased wife, his bond to his two children, his love for his career-driven second wife • The evidence for the mystery's solution is developed in authentic dialogue, with a variance in voice and diction, depending on whom Tavish is speaking to • The secondary plot involves Tavish's conflict with a street gang and their criminal allies; it is a conflict of his own making, arising from his pride and threatening his own family and his own life • The characters are sufficiently compelling to allow the generation of a series • The novel is subtler than many mysteries and tends to the literary, with metaphor and allusion that enhance the story and its theme