DeVilliers County Blues: 1972 [Kindle Edition]

I read this work of John Cassell's out of order. Hell's Quest takes place in the year before Devillier's County Blues, but I was taking the book on vacation and HQ is a larger tome and the airlines are getting picky about weight limits so in went the smaller of the two volumes. Now I am anxiously awaiting my flight home so I can start on HQ!
I have become friends with Brother John through the Amazon Shorts program and he is an amusing, insightful and creative correspondent. I have also read some of his other books and stories and thoroughly enjoyed them. But not even his earlier works prepared me for the thrill ride that is DCB. I like to write, and read, stories that have a twist in the tail (or even tale). DCB has surprises in abundance, combined with the usual cast of believeable and sympathethic characters and a clear feel for the times in which the action takes place. John weaves in political and social commentary without ever taking away from the story or, for that matter, even seeming to comment at all.
John can also write effective erotic passages without the anatomical detail beloved by some authors....read the account of the protagonist's encounter with Luella in the guard tower and see if you agree. He can write just as effectively of violence without recourse to graphic detail....read of the capture at the farm house and tell me that you don't feel the horror.
As I said, I have become friends with John and some may view this review as slightly biased. For the nitpicker, there are flaws to be found, but show me a four hundred page book without flaws and I'll shake your hand. If you want a book that entertains, makes you think, recalls a turbulent time with astonishing clarity, twists your mind like a pretzel with its surprises and plot twists and, finally, leaves you satisfied as you close its final page.....this is a book for you.

My first thought on finishing this book was, Wow! what a ride! The author had me in his grip right from the start. Not only is this a high powered action suspense thriller, but it seems so real somehow, though listed as fiction. Perhaps that is partly attributed to the name of the main protagonist, John Cassell, the same as the author. This may also be ascribed to the feeling of the building of terror and suspense. Whatever the reason for the name as main character, it certainly worked to his advantage, because it did make the story his.

John W. Cassell the author has delved deeply into the world of black ops, conspiracy, evil, greed, and terror. A world where everything operates inside out and eats away at our very souls. A world of organized crime, lawmen on the take, FBI policies and politics. In fact, so much rings true, I'm sure his is drawing a lot from personal knowledge in one form or another, perhaps from 3 or 4 instances. The book begins with Cassell returning home from war-torn Morocco, deeply mourning the death of his fighting partner/true love, Nancy. It is January 4, 1972 and he will soon discover what he has just returned from is nowhere near the extent to which he will be fighting for his life and sanity over the year ahead, as he decides to take a car trip wherever it takes him.

The author has been very consistently in time and place, even speech of the era. Nancy had been working for a multi-millionaire J.B. Fischer before she was killed in Morocco, and was privy to a lot of sensitive information, including incriminating ledgers Fischer had given her to put in her safety deposit box, knowing he was her only beneficiary should she become deceased before him. Therefore it was with real trepidation and fear that he discovered her will had been changed, with John Cassell as residuary devisee. This means that John will receive the contents of the safety deposit box along with anything else that has not been mentioned. So far, John has not been made aware of this.

A frightening scenario is hatched up between Fischer and his cohorts, some very nasty people with loads of resources at their disposal to carry out their evil plan. They can not bump him off within a year because of the year provision. What can they do? Well might you ask! First, Fisher makes Cassell a partner to insure that he will be able to obtain the ledgers on his death, which of course can't happen until the following year.

John, totally aware of none of this except the offer of a partnership, continues his drive and suddenly wakes up in an insane asylum. He soon meets 3 other very diverse occupants who have similar stories, and still not understanding what's going on they draw together in a very strange alliance. It is from this point that their world spins entirely out of control. Here the real evil lurks. Here the plan goes into effect. Here the plan almost works. But unbeknownst to these four they do have two friends working on their behalf undercover. Without this assistance, the story would end here.

This book revels in fear techniques, humor, bravery, and brother/sistership, a lasting friendship, teammates to the end, whatever it may be. Tension, anxiety, terror, and humiliation build up daily as their thinking capacity goes down. If you want a wild ride, roller-coaster action, unique methodology, love of friends, and dire consequences ending in a huge, over-the-top interference of an ending, something that will blow your mind, this book is for you. Relax when our protagonists relax, prepare with them, laugh when they laugh, fight with them, mourn with them, but never forget their strength and their bond. Amazing book.

Discovered this book quite by accident whilst visiting the product page of Up The Down Staircase. Its author had submitted a review I found to be literary in its quality, logical in its argument. So I purchased DeV.

On one level this is the story of an individual trapped, not knowing how he came to be so, amongst others in an insane asylum. On another, it is the story of the legal system of America in 1972, the various decision-makers within it, and the author's un-stayed opinion of their worth and performance.

On both levels Mr. Cassell does an outstanding job of relating a thrilling cops and robbers type of story, a story complicated by the fact we really don't know who the good chaps are, do we? Indeed the reader must needs make that judgment for himself as the surface viewpoint pits a distinguished American entrepreneur and philanthropist against people of not at all similar social rank.

The judgement is not all difficult at the end, but the plot is compelling, John and his fellow escapees sympathetic as the drama unfolds. I might add there is an excellent collection of secondary characters who add considerable spice to the story. These include the solicitor Horowitz, the policemen Gariglia, Gardner, Marcuso and Pelligrini, the siren Louella, the bright and fetching Lindsey, not to mention Woodstock and Moonbeam!

A few surprises, some grisly psychological touches, some very clever villians and an overall winner of a story makes DeVilliers County Blues a must-read.