CD Review: Left Hand Smoke
Book review: No One to TrustColumbian rebel seeks sanctuary despite having ‘No One to Trust’
Deep in the heart of Colombia there are many battles to be fought over drugs, government and rebels. During all the disorganization a perfect little girl was made. Born a fighter, raised a killer, Elena Kyler was Daddy’s prodigy angel. Growing up a soldier came as a first instinct to this child of a rebel. Beautiful and unstoppable, Elena and her father took on Columbia until the day her father was tragically lost. Unable to discontinue her life as she knew it, Elena continued to press on until her father’s enemy, Rico Chavez, had somehow caught her during a small window of weakness, and she was trapped. Years down the road Elena was still trying to forget those days spent captive, which proved impossible when Chavez was tipped off to her whereabouts by someone close to Elena, someone betrayed her in exchange for a single shot of heroin. Chavez was coming to get what he wanted and felt was his: Barry, the only son to his name. Finding help in the DEA, Elena reaches her sanctuary, and a love that she has never experienced.
Though Iris Johansen may have chosen a plot that could have been played to a predictable tune, she has magically written a fictional action thriller which encompasses the basic human need for love. This gift, “No One to Trust,” awarded her the status of a No. 1 New York Times best-selling author. With more than 8 million copies of this book in print, something must have been done right.
“Flesh-and-blood characters, crackling dialogue and lean, suspenseful plotting” is what “Publishers Weekly” claims her secret to writing is. With two grown children and a career as a flight attendant behind her, Johansen unleashed her talent in the 1980s, and is today among the top-selling female writers. Once having experienced one of her classic novels, readers will search for more. (Hint: the next book in her sequence is “Dead Aim.”)