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BLACK HORIZON, the eleventh Jack Swyteck thriller by James Grippando, concerns a disaster caused by an oilrig explosion impacting an environmentally sensitive area of the Florida Keys. As I write this review, the real news is telling of a damaged oil tanker spewing oil into Galveston Bay and threatening thousands of migratory birds. In other words, this book could not be more timely or more terrifying in its premise. To compound the problem in the book's scenario, the oil drilling is being done by a multinational consortium in Cuban waters, so the United States can not go in quickly and help with the clean up.
Jack Swyteck, a Miami defense attorney, is honeymooning in the Keys when the explosion occurs. Almost immediately his wife Andie, an FBI agent, is called away on an urgent case that she cannot reveal to her husband. Then Jack is asked to represent Bianca Lopez, a local Cuban waitress whose husband died on the oilrig. Bianca is here legally, but her husband Rafael was still trying to get enough money to pay for the means to join her when he was killed. Jack runs into difficulties almost immediately with this case. Powerful figures and perhaps even the government try to stop him.
When Jack goes to Cuba to get the documentation of his client's marriage, he is abducted. A complex series of events follows as he is given information to deliver that indicates the explosion was sabotage. Although Jack is half Cuban, Andie's FBI colleagues threaten to use his illegal visit to Cuba to prosecute and disbar him if he does not drop the case. Jack has personal worries as well. Andie is pregnant. He does not know where she is but it seems her assignment might be related to the disaster. Also, his friend Theo is accused of murder.
The author used to be a trial lawyer, and his understanding of the way a courtroom works adds authenticity to his writing. The scenes when Jack and his opponents deal with a judge and her rulings ring true.
And now, as I proofread this review, I am listening to a report of a Lake Michigan oil spill. BLACK HORIZON is indeed a timely and engrossing read for old or new fans of Jack Swyteck's adventures.
§ Anne Corey is a writer, poet, teacher and botanical artist in New York's Hudson Valley.
Reviewed by Anne Corey, March 2014
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