WRECKED, a novel by Tricia Fields

A Sense of Place

If your taste tends toward books that transport you to another geographic location, then you’ll really like Wrecked, a novel by Tricia Fields, that is set in the desolate, though beautifully rugged west Texas desert.  Boulders and vistas and gorgeous, multi-hued sunsets create a stark backdrop to this fast-paced detective novel.  (With words, Ms. Fields has captured the desert beauty that is captured in the photos on her website:  http://www.triciafields.com/)

A Sense of Time

If you enjoy books that keep you rooted in the present, and that embed reference to modern-day technological norms in communication, then you’ll really like Wrecked, in which the protagonist, Josie Gray, police chief in small, tight-knit Artemis, TX, uploads videos of her kidnapped boyfriend that have been sent to her by a ruthless Mexican cartel seeking the return of a very, very large sum of laundered drug money.

Missing Pieces

Alas, not all is picture-perfect on the wide-open vistas in Ms. Fields’ novel.  There are a few missing pieces.  The largest is perhaps the one created by Chief Gray’s beleaguered boyfriend, who is being held in exchange for the return of the stolen, laundered funds.  We learn early on, in painstaking detail, of his truly excruciating ordeal at the bottom of an abandoned well, only to lose sight of him for far too many pages.  Then, after he reappears in a safe house on the other side of the border, we lose sight of him for far too long, again.  He is being kept hostage and out of sight–both literally and figuratively.

Overall

Overall, Wrecked was at its very best when it was letting Ms. Fields display her clear familiarity with law enforcement:  the dust jacket indicates that her husband is a state trooper in Indiana.  Her ease with police vernacular informs much of the fast-paced, believable parts of the novel.

For a quick journey to another space in present time, Wrecked fills the bill.

 

All in a Day

She married her first husband within earshot of the day her mother died.

She married her second husband within earshot of the day her father died.

She married her third husband within earshot of the day her son and only child was born, which was twenty years to the day after the day she married her first husband.

And there it is.