Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Chasing The Wind-Pamela Binnings Ewen

Chasing The Wind


Pamela Binnings Ewen

B&H, Aug 1 2012, $14.99

ISBN: 9780805464313



At exactly 8:47 A.M. on Wednesday, October 12, 1977 businessman Bingham Murdock flies his silver Lockheed Jetstar into New Orleans. At the same time Mangen & Morris lawyer Amalise Catoir looks out her downtown office window for the first time in three months. She feels rather good considering she survived the insane abuse of her husband Phillip Sharp. Amalise knows her friend Jude saved her life, who she thinks she loves, but he is seeing her friend and firm’s rival Rebecca. Looking out she notices the silver glint of a small plane. Also observing the silver in the sky is a lonely six years old Cambodian foster child who upon seeing the reflection remembers the terror of artillery that turned him into an outsider refugee.



Amalise is assigned to the Project Black Diamond resort hotel led by banker Doug Bastion. The client is Lone Ranger Incorporated owned only by Bingham who wants to build a gaudy hotel at the historical Faubourg Marigny historical sector adjacent to the French Quarter. Amalise and others are stunned by the revelation. Soon she, Bingham, Hey Jude and a displaced uncommunicative little boy converge over a construction project.



This is a strong character driven historical thriller with a powerful morality lesson that it what you failed to do that determines the fortitude of the inner person. Amalise holds the storyline together as she knows she loves Jude but also falls for the little Cambodian who suffers from PTSD nightmares. However, it is Bingham who brings roguish depth by challenging the capitalist vs. traditionalist beliefs of everyone; as Charles Rosner wrote for Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA): "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem".



Harriet Klausner

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