Scout’s Honor
by John McNellis
Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense / Historical
ISBN: 9781736352540
Print Length: 332 pages
Reviewed by Lindsay Crandall
A gripping thriller that explores themes of crime, punishment, confession, and salvation
At 19 years old, all Eddie Kawadsky can think about is earning enough money to put himself through college and achieving his dream of entering the Naval Flight academy.
After losing his father to the Vietnam War and fleeing his mother’s home, Eddie starts living in his van, working day and night to earn the money he needs for tuition. Both ambitious and naïve, Eddie is convinced by his childhood friend Roy to smuggle 50 kilos of Colombian cocaine across the border into the states. Roy convinces Eddie with money and the guarantee that “this is two hundred percent safe” thanks to his partner, a customs inspector who has cracked the guard rotation code at the border.
What Eddie doesn’t know is that Roy is planning on stealing the 50 kilos and letting Eddie take the fall. Both boys make it to Mexico, but they don’t both make it back across the border. Roy is taken to La Mesa, one of Mexico’s deadliest prisons, where he spends the next seventeen years. But Eddie, fleeing a deadly shootout, vanishes with the cocaine.
Scout’s Honor follows Eddie as he reinvents himself as Richard Austen. In Manhattan real estate, he puts the lessons he was taught in high school and those he learned in his two tours as a Marine in Vietnam to good use. While he tries to bury his guilt and buy his salvation with generous philanthropy, he’s got to constantly look over his shoulder. Just as he relaxes enough to contemplate starting a family with the woman he loves, Roy knocks on his door.
McNellis’s pacing throughout Scout’s Honor is pitch perfect. His talent for storytelling shines, sparkling with well-placed and downright exciting twists and turns. There may be some rough time jumps occasionally, but this doesn’t take away from the effectiveness of the story. A former lawyer and a nationally recognized real estate expert himself, the author’s knowledge in both fields is demonstrated with authority over and over again.
Eddie and Richard are flawed characters, although they are one in the same. Eddie struggles with his own personal choices that find him homeless and living in his van, and Richard struggles with the choices he’s made to survive and thrive, continually trying to buy his way into heaven with generous donations. A thriller is only as good as its characters; luckily, this one’s got some great ones.
Thesuspense is propulsive, and it’s got characters to care about. Thriller readers are going to leave satisfied. I know I did.
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