Review by zeldasideas -- Aftermath by Charles Williams

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zeldasideas
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Review by zeldasideas -- Aftermath by Charles Williams

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[Following is a volunteer review of "Aftermath" by Charles Williams.]
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4 out of 4 stars
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On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans with the force of an atomic bomb. Its aftermath left countless residents homeless.

Today in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward, many black homeowners, comprising over 90 percent of the ward's occupants, struggle to find the money to repair the damage from the hurricane. Federal funds are gone. While numerous white neighborhoods have been renovated, black areas remain impoverished. Many fear that the corruption harming black lives is but one further sign of the racist scam that has been denying blacks an equal opportunity at home purchasing for years.

Charles Williams' Aftermath describes how one church in the religious Lower Ninth Ward struggled to combat homelessness by utilizing ties of faith. Set in the immediate post-Katrina years, the novel draws into view a Baptist minister, Clarence Washington, a black man who struggled upward from impoverishment, then found himself at the helm of a congregation which had been displaced from its native soil. He returns to a shattered dream, street upon street of bilge, debris, and possessions dating to a period before the Civil War era. The entire community is now in the hands of crooked bank dealers and antiquarians. As he muses upon his role as church leader, viewing the loss of his parish environs, he cannily observes: "The seemingly interminable aftermath of the storm was proving worse than the hurricane itself" (p. 4).

Washington's arch-nemesis is a purported disaster investor, Joe Pacello, the chief of operations in a rogue scavenger deal. Directing the reconstruction of a Ninth-Ward housing complex, Pacello plans to steal federal funds for himself and his political cronies while denying blacks full access to the materials and equipment they need to rebuild their community. All along Pacello spars with the novel's main protagonist, Clint Johnson, a real estate investor who has been subverted into the FBI as a means of plea-bargaining out of a bribe scandal in which he was caught taking cash from the mob. As the FBI learns more about Pacello's ties to the syndicate's main crime boss, Nick Ricci, they locate a cache of felonies, with billions of dollars of federal reconstruction monies at stake. Johnson is involved on an extremely dangerous mission. He must expose the mob corruption scandal before it can capitalize on all the ill-gotten gain.

Williams' plot rolls. The brisk dialogue speeds the drama ahead so that we can observe the characters developing into a broader field of operations. The opening bar scene where the FBI tells Johnson that they are planning to arrest the Ricci syndicate is filled with enigmatic asides, stoic pitches, and indirect references to officials who may be listening in. The FBI strives to convince Johnson that it is in his best interests to help arrest the mob; nevertheless, Johnson, always the reluctant investigator, attempts to back out of the recruitment, alleging that the FBI will have little need for his capable services once the entire city is under prosecution for fraud, a theory he bases on the assumption that every building and barroom is bugged by the Fed.

In fact the entire city of New Orleans is poised to play along with the corruption scandal to get their property back, with even the most innocent of its inhabitants developing into targets of a full-scale investigation. Eventually the characters are filled with double-sided motives which turn them into corruption-riddled frauds. A funding-group meeting between Pacello, Clint, and their amorous contact Tonya Whittington demonstrates how bitterness rankles under the surface. Pacello and Progressive Bank seem to be safe and to stand totally on the side of blacks, despite Pacello's known insider trafficking against the black community. At the same time, those sworn and duly appointed to prosecute him, Clint and Tonya, seem more interested in achieving pay kickbacks and future outside business deals rather than in making an arrest. All of this is fulfilled in the service of God and homeland.

While most of the scenes are fast-paced and embellished with superb views of the aquatics and byways of New Orleans, some transitions seem overworked. For instance, Clint's meeting with Progressive CEO John Hamilton takes the form of a rather circuitous, long-winded jaunt down the roads leading to the CEO's demesne. In a similar scene, Clint and his wife take an extended drive to their residence to discuss her departure to Mexico City, a passage that resumes the narrative without building up the suspense. Although the prose is clear and accountably thought-provoking, the text contains occasional spelling errors which might have been cleaned up through closer editing.

Overall, this historical detective mystery suggests numerous directions for future fictional works on the subject of Hurricane Katrina. With climate change directing fears that the next hurricane may bring even greater devastation to New Orleans, this book demonstrates how the power of the written word can help to create social change. Readers interested in this subject will find much of profound value in this outstanding historical account of corruption in post-Katrina New Orleans. I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars for its excellent attention to its subject matter.

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Aftermath
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katmeynaj345
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Post by katmeynaj345 »

Greed, power, wealth are just part of what the three men are after. This book is really interesting and engaging. Thank you for your review
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