"Lonesome Point," by Ian Vasquez (Minotaur Books, $25)
In Ian Vasquez's second novel, two brothers who grew up in Belize and now live in Miami are trying to outrun their past in markedly different ways.
Leo writes poetry, lives with his pregnant girlfriend and works in a psych ward.
His brother, Patrick, is a lawyer with a family, a big home and political aspirations.
They share a secret about a murder on Lonesome Point back in Belize and about their father's shameful part in it.
And they are both trying to forget their own involvement in the killing.
Now someone is trying to excavate this past, and they are using an old boyhood friend, Freddie, to do it. Freddie wants Leo to "release" to him a patient who is on the psych ward. Leo is hesitant to do it, but Freddie isn't taking "no" for an answer.
The story moves briskly between past and present and among Leo, Patrick and Freddie, building tension as the past threatens to become a real part of the present.
Vasquez's experiences growing up in Belize and working on a psych ward while living in Miami contribute heavily to the authentic feel of the story. Vasquez is now a copy editor for the St. Petersburg Times.
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