Butterfly Warrior

Juan Blea
Sherman Asher Publishing (2005)
ISBN 1890932310
Reviewed by Joanne Benham for Reader Views (8/06)

The night that Manny Lopez turned 35, he celebrated the event by killing himself.  As his family and friends gather to bury him, his widowed mother, Dona Lopez, pleads with his three best friends from childhood to discover what happened to him at the medical research laboratory where he worked that would make him do such a thing.  She knows that Manny, brought up with a strong faith, would never do such a thing voluntarily.  To kill yourself was to place your eternal soul in jeopardy. 

The three friends, who have not seen each other in several years, each go their separate ways in the investigation.  Only one of the three believes passionately that Manny would never kill himself.  The others understand what you can do when under the influence of drugs and try to stand aloof…until there is a killing and Dona Lopez takes matters into her own hands.

This story is set in the Hispanic community in Santa Fe, NM, weaving through the lives of the four children, all of whom are drawn to each other by a common love of guitar music, poetry and The Butterfly Warrior - key player in an ancient Aztec legend. 

I would have liked to see more storyline set in the medical laboratory itself and more fleshing out of the characters.  I would have especially liked to read more about what demons drove Cuate’s behavior.  Other than those two relatively minor points, the novel was very good.  Once I started reading it, I didn’t put it down until it was finished.

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