“The Boys from Santa Cruz” by Jonathan Nasaw – a good author stumbles.
I’ve read all the other Nasaw books featuring F.B.I. agent, E. L. Pender and really liked them, so when I saw “The Boys from Santa Cruz” on the shelf at my local library, I snatched it up. The first half of the book was fabulous – a real page turner, then….for some reason, Nasaw switched protagonist and the book became very confusing and .. not good.
The book takes place in 1985 when Pender is in his 40’s. He’s not a typical F.B.I. agent by any means. He’s 6′4″ tall, overweight, bald and, by his own admission, he’s ugly. As if that weren’t enough, he drinks too much and smokes too much, wears garish clothing but still manages to romance a few of the local ladies, even though he’s married.
The books starts when 15-year-old Luke Sweet, Jr. gets a call from his father, Luke Senior, telling him to clear out now! Luke then turns the phone over to Teddy, his transsexual step-mother but is hurt because he knows his father is professing love for Teddy but didn’t bother to say anything to his son. Big Luke is killed in a shoot-out with Pender and other F.B.I. agents. Seems Big Luke and Teddy have been making snuff films! Teddy kills herself and Luke takes off, lost and alone, trying to survive.
The first half of the book is told from Luke and Pender’s POV. Luke finds himself in horrendous trouble and I was never sure if all his problems were accidents or if Little Luke was a psycho. That’s what made the story interesting. Then, half-way through the story, out of the blue, Nasaw introduces a new character! We hear very little from this guy and more about Pender and a P.I. named Skip. I won’t go into details of the story in case you want to read it. Suffice to say, there are some pretty graphic scenes of torture.
I had to force myself to finish this book and when I got to the end – I turned the page looking for more! Yes, it’s one of those books that just stops – it didn’t have an ending. I’m not sure if Nasaw ran out of time, got bored or what but the ending was very poor.
At this point I’d be willing to read another Pender book, just because the character is so interesting. Too bad “The Boys from Santa Cruz” wasn’t better because I really can’t recommend reading it.
