BLOODWORK - The New Rugged Cross

Jack Lee has worked hard to put an unsavory past behind him, only to have it rise up and threaten to swallow him when his best friend is brutally murdered. He has had the great fortune to find love, and a good life stands waiting for him to claim it. But the bizarre murder strikes into the bedrock of Jack Lee's being, far below the layers of conditioning that make him a "civilized man." Every aspect of his life, including love, is relegated to secondary status while Jack deals with the almost elemental evil in ways he had never before believed he could.

Jack Lee agrees to help best friend Smiley sell one last marijuana crop, but an evil cult leader and a sadistic serial killer have other plans in this pallid work of suspense by first-time novelist Joseph. Found innocent of conspiracy charges to import marijuana, Lee left ``The Trade'' and spent three years in the hills of Georgia. He's just rejoined the world and fallen in love with a beautiful Greenpeace activist when Smiley is found crucified and earless, wearing a marijuana crown. Only Lee knows that 300 marijuana plants are missing from Smiley's place. Helicopter pilot Lucius O'Dell, supporter of the white supremacist leader Reverend Clyde, is murdered next, but not before he babbles the names ``Clint'' and ``Reverend Clyde'' to his doctor, who in turn calls Atlanta TV reporter Courtney Fox. Both the doctor and Fox are found murdered, with their ears cut off. Smiley was the first victim in Reverend Clyde's plan to clean up the white race before establishing a righteous and white America. Clint DuBois enjoys the ``bloodwork'' for the Reverend Clyde, but he wants the money the marijuana will provide. Fox's friend and private investigator, a former FBI agent named Darrell Day, joins forces with Lee to find the killer. Lee contacts his old friend and dope broker, the Thin Man, to trace the plants while Day works his FBI contacts for information about the Reverend Clyde and DuBois. Lee trails DuBois when he makes arrangements to sell the marijuana to the Thin Man; on the same Sunday that the Reverend Clyde plans to present his Final Plan to his people, he is found crucified, wearing a crown of ears. An interesting premise, but thinly developed characters and scanty suspense make this disappointing. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Joseph's first novel utilizes indirect action: he introduces crucial characters and connects them to the plot, then antiseptically kills them "offstage." Protagonist Jack Lee, a reformed "outlaw," subsequently uses his personal contacts to discover what really happened. The horrible mutilation murders of his best friend and two others, which involve a healthy marijuana crop, lead him to an obscure but evil Georgia-based white-supremacist group. The action revs up as Jack enters the enemy camp, where shaky dialog and derivative characters weaken the tension. Pass.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Joseph's debut novel introduces a cast of hard-line characters enmeshed in a small but bloody conflict between religious fanatics and a former drug runner. Protagonist Jack Lee, attempting to straighten out his life and leave the fast money of the drug trade behind, finds himself drawn into helping an old friend put together one last marijuana deal. Things go bad in a big way when the friend is discovered crucified and a large portion of his crop missing. As the "bloodwork" continues, Jack begins his own investigation. In Joseph's scenario, the cultists are portrayed as single-minded lunatics, and the pot farmers are decent people out to make a dishonest dollar. While there is an attempt to add a romantic interest, this straightforward thriller relies mainly on crisp action and tight plotting. A solid effort. Elliott Swanson