Down to No Good

Down to No Good: Edward Javorsky

When Charlie Miner realizes that he is dead how does he come back to life? Drugs are his mainstay, violence is passion but his daughter Mindy the only other person he dares about. So, how does a man riddled with bullets throughout his body come back to life when waking up in the morgue. He’s a private investigator but has spend time in rehab, dealing with his addiction and now Homicide Detective Dave Putnam drags his body to his house and helps him revive himself. But, like everyone else that helps in a pinch, yet this is more than a pinch, Dave wants something from Charlie.

Do you believe in psychics? Do you think they can really predict outcomes or even things within your own life? Tamara Gale provides during one of her sessions information about three murders and she even predicts when bad things are going to happen but is she a fraud? Making the police look incompetent is bad but does she really have a link to what is going to happen or has happened when she talks about the three murders and the fact that she knows what happened to each of the victims. Charlie owes Dave his new life and he wants to him help figure out what Tamara is really after since he has had first hand experience with the unexplainable. The author describes incidents where he removes his head, hovers over a particular area and situation, replaces his head and assesses what he finds out. He has huge cognitive issues and he remembers and sees things that other do not but will he agree to help Dave? During a presentation he hovers over Tamara and sees her wearing a headset and learns that her husband might be feeding her the information about the audience and events that she needs? But when she keels over at the end of one and everyone thinks she is dead, is she putting on a show to get attention or is she really a fraud? The author presents several issues dealing with drug abuse, verbal abuse, outer body experiences, mental health issues, fighting private demons, loyalty to a child and second or even third chances in life to create something more meaningful for yourself. But, we all know that life sometimes comes with a price and a man named Daniel just might be his downfall as he expects Charlie to help when someone dies and has to cross over but so far he has blown him off!

Things spiral in many different directions when we learn more about Tamara Gale and her so called husband Phillip AKA Phillip Riddle her brother. Tamara predicts bad things and when Dave and Charlie take hold of Phillip and decide on their own brand of justice they learn the truth behind the murders of Billy, Kyle and the ricin incident that injured many people when a drone was flown over the field where the players were in action. Charlie has a serious drug addiction and when filled with coke, heroin or anything else he uses a specific drug called Naloxone in order to cleanse his body of these other drugs. You peel back the package and remove a device. You place and hold the tip of the nozzle as he does either in either nostril until your fingers touch the bottom of the patient’s nose or in this case his nose. Press the plunger and release the Narcan. It is a prescription medicine that blocks the effects of Opioids and reverses an overdose and which he uses numerous times throughout the novel. It would bring him down not help him get high. It is an opioid antagonist used for complete or partial reversal when someone overdoses with an opioid. When deciding how to create less pain for Phillip one drug was given but to make sure he felt the burns and the rest they used Naloxone. But, before they could find out what Tamara has in store and what carnage she had planned the police came and the location was not found, Gale/Riddle was taken to a hospital and both Dave and Charlie were being brought in for more than questioning and decisions as to how to handle it would be left to others.

Summing up what has occurred Jimmy Ratboy, Daniel’s visit, Tamara Gale, news clipping, and Jerry Ayers who wants to break a story about the psychic wide open. Jerry tells Dave that Tamara has ear buds with her husband feeding her information about the audience. Charlie is our narrator who explains the last time he had a drink or drug or even how he banged a decent hit of Jimmy’s heroin with no result since getting a bullet in his head. Enter Z or Zina, Tamara’s daughter who is not on the path of sanity and who enjoys doing lines, drugs and other things with Charlie who seems to want her company but why? Billy Taft was killed in December of the previous year. Kyle Johnson in April and then two weeks later the third item he lists was the one that had Dave flying to New Mexico the UTube video, predicts poisoning. Tamara Gale predicted the poisonings but Peter Riddles came up in the system too many times and what was his link to all that was going to happen or did happen? What about Jerry Ayres and his threat to expose Tamara as a fraud?

When the final pieces fit together and the last threat is unveiled as Tamara claims there are going to be more deaths and carnage but does not reveal where how do they finally link her and Riddles?
When things get tough Charlie takes more drugs when he wants to be coherent he shoots up with Naloxone. Carlotn Tallman of the Navajo Police realized that there was much more than he was aware of and when Dave went to the school where the poisoning occurred, he explained about Tamara Gale’s so called vision of a bird and young people rolling on the ground but did he understand the symbolism? Tamara Gale predicted another disaster and what is her connection to all of these and who if anyone else is part of the plan? Things get worse and out of control when Jerry is murdered, Tamara Gale aka Tammy Riddle, what about Phillip? Where do they intersect and what is her real plan and who if anyone else is the mastermind? Getting Phillip as their captive, plying him with Dilaudid kept him quiet and pain free but what they did next would let this man know that life was going to never be the same and the pain he would feel would be unyielding as they used a shot of Naloxone to bring him around. Things spiral in a different direction when two officers show up, take control of the situation and both Dave and Charlie find themselves on the other side of the curtain. Huerta was a female cop and took no prisoners and did not feed into what Dave was saying and sent Phillip off to the hospital but where was the next attack going to take place and how if at all would they stop it?
Captain Van Evera is in charge and will they be able to convince him to figure out where the attack will take place? Charlie is a PI and Dave is thrown off the case for being drunk but they duo does not stop at that and nothing will halt them from figuring out where the attack will occur, when and how? Face to face with the mastermind and hoping that they can stop what has been in place Charlie Miner and Dave Putnam put their lives on the line but will it be enough to stop the tragedy that someone has set in place?
When all is said and done and the bodies are counted the author allows us to know why Charlie was given a second and third chance in life? Revisit Daniel his mentor just what is his role? Sometimes someone is put on this earth to help others and do good or even more? The ending will or might change your opinion of Charlie or not but one thing seems for sure I think the author has more stories to tell about both Charlie and Dave. Humorous, paranormal you might say, visions, dreams, drugs and violence in the novel that has a touch of noir, suspense, mystery, murder and definitely mayhem.

Fran Lewis: Just reviews/MJ magazine