Inertia: Treachery in Alaska

Book Review
The setting of this gangster lifestyle is in my very own state: Alaska. I am acquainted with the author and was given the book to read over a weekend. Immediately, I found myself wrapped into the story as it pulled me into the lives of Curtis and June. Their home location was a suburb of Anchorage that my family lived in when we first started living off-base in the early '80s after being stationed to Elmendorf. Little did I know what sort of shady activities were taking place in that poor part of town. I think my dad had a clue as he would always joke that my best friend's dad was a pimp and his mom was a hooker. (DOH!) It was probably true now that I look back on it.

Curtis is invited into a lifestyle that he probably would have never been introduced to if his mom had not overdosed on the very powder her sister, June, had thrown her life away on. After a conflict between June and the man who invites him into the ring, the story takes off on a journey of greed, treachery, deceit, and death. The men in the drug ring live in places around Anchorage such as the poor 'burb of Mountain View to the high class area of the Hillside. They journey to L.A. and Seattle where their contacts are located. But with the introduction of Curtis to the group, the ring unravels.

There are some violent scenes involved. The language of this book is very strong and explicit. It is written in hard-core gangster slang. There's even a little glossary at the back of the book to help readers understand what is meant by the slang terms used. I found quite a few grammatical errors [i.e. usage of past & present tense; spelling], but they were easily forgiven. I talked to him today and learned that this is the first book published by this author. He never said whether he had any classes instructing him on how to write a book, but he did say that he will be brushing up on his English as time goes on. He has a second book due out soon - the sister to Inertia. And he's 700 pages into a third book that he feels is his "masterpiece". So we should be seeing more books coming from this reformed gentleman in the future.

Inertia: Treachery In Alaska