Stalked: The Boy Who Said No-Patti Sheehy

Stalked: The Boy Who Said No

Patti Sheehy

Oceanview, Sep 2 2014, $26.95

ISBN 9781608091256

Disenchanted with the Castro regime, Frank Mederos followed his beloved Magda to the United States (see The Boy Who Said No: An Escape to Freedom).  In 1967 though confused by the race riots in his new home, married Frank and Magda dream of raising a family in a land where there is plenty of freedom of choice.

For several years, the Cuban exiles enjoy their middle class existence and love their child Darlene until Magda becomes ill, suffering from Hodgins Disease.  Meanwhile back in Cuba, Lieutenant Pino, whose career died when Frank escaped the island, plans to avenge against the man who destroyed him.

The second Frank Mederos biographical fiction is an appealing thriller due to a strong, easy to root for protagonist.  Although the tale captures the “better dead than red” mindset of the 1950s Cold War, it feels wrong by the late 1960s and 1970s which is when Stalked occurred.  Still this is a well-written historical further anchored in time by a Governor Clinton appearance.

Harriet Klausner