| FICTION: CRIME / MYSTERY
Point and Shoot
by G.D. Baum
Booksurge
Softcover, $14.99
215 pages
ISBN: 1419619810
Five stars
“At forty years old, I could still be stubborn and
make mistakes. The difference was I knew I was making them
and went forward anyway.”
In the North Jersey shadow of the George Washington Bridge,
former cop Lock Tourmaline is struggling to hold together
a semblance of a personal life. His girlfriend’s cancer
treatments aren’t working and a cokehead ex-wife has
vowed to sleep with fifty other cops, but still demands
regular rescuing. His personality evokes something besides
good will from others. Lock’s small martial arts school
hasn’t proven as lucrative as expected, so he pulls
bodyguard duty at a sit-down of rival Korean-American crime
families. When a shooter slips by, he has a lot more to
worry about than doomed, disappointed women and existential
anomic drift.
Lock’s reliable rock since childhood is his Shaolin
Kempo Karate teacher, an Oprah fan employed as a bondage
club bouncer who goes by the name of Grandfather. This invincible
enigma serves a similar purpose as the Bubba Rogowski character
from Dennis Lehane’s novels, except Grandfather’s
arsenal is his total mastery of the more mystical martial
arts, rather than a literal arsenal. Of all Baum’s
characters, only he operates beyond the rules of realism,
downing attackers from a distance with invisible energy
waves. All the story’s other players exhibit reasonable
failings.
The nimble dialogue includes dry humor as a defense mechanism
when the situation is spinning askew and smart-alecky quips
during intervals of low tension: [Pauline:] ”You need
to make the distinction between toying with the fringes
of sexuality and violence, as opposed to actually engaging
in sexual violence.” [Lock:] “The first one
is better?”
Point and Shoot is as much a study of compromised people
in states of distraction and irrationality as it is an action
novel. In a place where no adult is morally pristine, the
author handles the repeated theme of disdain for the helper
with a reflective intelligence. Unappreciated gambles and
sacrifices are part and parcel of this book: “I want
to be the guy who does the heavy lifting for those around
me who cant, even those who have utter contempt for me.”
Interplay between North Jersey’s ethnic communities
is rather interesting but too briefly visited. The inner
dynamics of Korean-American crime organizations are somewhat
under-explored. Trouble has been taken to elucidate the
strategies of successful physical attacks; depictions of
martial arts are far from cartoonish. Explanations of fight
details, although obviously expert, could be pared down
modestly in future outings without diminishing the readers’
understanding.
The author, now a Tai Chi instructor, was once nationally
ranked in Shaolin Kempo. His writing training comes from
Sarah Lawrence College. Although Point and Shoot is Baum’s
first published novel, he avoids rookie mistakes and presents
readers with a high caliber, tightly woven story. There
is no doubt a sequel is in the works. Considering Baum’s
depth and handle on human complexity, it should be just
as worthy of attention.
Reviewed by Todd Mercer
ForeWord CLARION Reviews
www.forewordmagazine.com
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