Little Blue Whales

Kenneth R. Lewis
iUniverse (2005)
ISBN 0595390005
Reviewed by Joanne Benham for Reader Views (5/06)

Kevin Kearnes seemed to have it all. A loving wife, two wonderful sons and a good job with the Dodge City, KS PD, where he was a patrol lieutenant. Then one day it all fell apart on him. His wife Tilly, left him and moved back to the Indian Reservation with their sons, leaving him rattling around in their family home.

Unable to handle the pain, Kearnes decides to make a complete break and applies for, and gets, the job of Police Chief for the town of Cutter Point, OR. Once ensconced in his office, Kevin finds out that his new job is not a sinecure. He finds himself battling a corrupt mayor and city manager as well as members of his own law enforcement department. Things are further complicated when a local patriot group is assigned the mission, over Kearnes' strong objection, of dynamiting a whale carcass from the local beach. As their overzealous application of illegal explosives detonates, flying whale debris destroys thousands of dollars worth of property from local homes and businesses and sets off the Tsunami Early Warning Siren, which in turn starts a mass exodus of the citizenry, causing massive traffic tie-ups and accidents. The local hospital is overrun with senior citizens, most exhibiting the early signs of heart attacks brought on by stress.

Into all these problems, a small ray of sunshine peeks through for Chief Kearnes. He meets a beautiful, mysterious doctor when her car is hit by a chunk of whale flesh and she plows into a telephone pole. Stranded in Cutter Point for a time, she and Kearnes fall in love.

Things are finally looking up for Kearnes when a new disaster hits. Someone is murdering young boys and as Kearnes delves deeper into the deaths, he finds himself caught up in a deeper mystery...these deaths seem to be related in some fashion to a long-suppressed incident in his own childhood.

As the tensions pile up, Kearnes finds himself slowly but surely losing his grip on his sanity, threatening to destroy those he loves as he struggles to find the killer before another child is lost.

And in the end, it takes a selfless act of love to finally save Kearnes' life and in doing that, his sanity.

This book is engrossing, a wonderful first time effort. The characters in this book, even the bad ones, are memorable, from Kearnes to Thud, Frick and Frack, LaMar the Drug Czar, quiet, hero worshipping Spenser and Shoshanna Perry. I'm hoping Ken Lewis spins this book out into a series. I'd love to read more about some of these people, especially Spenser, who never lost faith in his Chief.

Make comment on weblog