This is my review for Fathers House; the opinions expressed are my own and were in no way influenced by anyone else.
Fathers House is a mystery/suspense novel that takes place in Duraleigh, North Carolina. The government officials are busy proclaiming that there is no gang violence and their streets are clean while all along getting kick-backs from a large crime syndicate called Fathers Disciples. No one knows who they are and no one is really sure where they came from. Signs seem to point to Fathers House, a home for wayward boys, run by “Uncle” Mayo Fathers. Is this pillar of the community really a front for a massive criminal empire? Who can you trust when everyone seems to be on the take?
Ben Lovison is an assistant in the District Attorney’s office who is given a case to prosecute that involved a savage beating death of a boy who lives at Fathers House by another of his peers, one who also lives at Fathers House. Ben has a history with Fathers House; he is one of their success stories. After the brutal murder of his mother, he is taken in by Uncle Mayo and he not only survives, he thrives. He graduates high school, college and law school. What should be a simple open and closed case becomes anything but. With twists and turns along the way, Ben slowly comes to realize that there is something dark lurking in Fathers House and through the streets of Duraleigh.
The story builds very slowly and for readers who don’t have the patience to let the story build, they will probably become disinterested after a few chapters. There are a lot of characters and it’s very hard to keep them all straight, some of them are unfortunately very interchangeable and that really ends up taking away from what really is a very well written story. The plot is strong, and the twists are unexpected for the most part. But the characters tend to get in the way. I think if the cast was pared down a bit and more was done to identify and flesh out some of the more important characters it would have worked much better.
Once you make it past the first few chapters, the story really begins to move quickly through the twists and turns and the author does finally connect all the dots together to make a more coherent picture. I’m not sure if this was the intention of the author to have so many threads dangling out in the wind and then have them all tied together by the climax, but that’s definitely how it seemed to me. It was really rough at first to try and keep all the threads straight and try to remember who was who and what side were they really on, but in the end I think it all worked out. Satisfying climax though it was rather fast, a blink and you miss it type.
Fathers House has a solid plot with some really solid characters, both good and evil. Too many characters did detract a bit for me and some of them really didn’t lend much to the story itself other than to connect a dot later on. But that’s just one person’s opinion. This is an independently published novel if I remember correctly and while it might turn a lot of people off if it doesn't come from a big name publishing company, this novel was very well edited, very few errors and the formatting was better than I've seen in many, many independently published books. Even the cover was interesting! If you like crime stories, mysteries or suspense, give Fathers House a try.
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