Brothers Lost
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Author's Summary
MWSA Review
David Michaelson’s own lust for adventure and change fires his page-turning novel, Brothers Lost, a lively combination of family reunited and drug busting. Edwin Collingsworth’s moon-lighting as a private detective and repossession agent irritates his wealthy adoptive parents to the point they reveal a secret. They didn’t just adopt Edmond, they bought him. Not only that, somewhere he has a twin brother.
Relying on his PI skills and a handsomely endowed bank account, Edwin’s search for his brother leads him to the shady BAR-LO connection, the baby sellers who’d brokered the twins’ adoptions. The information he surreptitiously uncovers there leads him to New Mexico, where intuition and chance—or perhaps the promptings of the “Old Ones,” i.e., tribal spirits, he meets Nalnish, The old Navajo elder knew him, his brother, father, and mother long ago. He tells Edwin learns about his mother’s forced marriage to an abusive husband, his father’s drunken death, his mother’s passion for horses, and her banishment from the tribe for selling her children to white parents Equally important, Nalnish reveals Edwin’s brother’s name and home.
Michaelson uses the first of his several effective plot twists here. Edwin arrives in San Diego to find his brother’s parents but not him. Brother Edmond, former Marine Sapper now Navy lieutenant JG and SEAL, is missing, in trouble, Edwin senses. With the aid of Edmond’s girlfriend, Cindy and a former Viet Nam SEAL turned professional surfer, Reef Roberts, Edwin flies to Colombia. He not only finds Edmond, he frees him from the drug traffickers who’ve kidnapped and tortured him. Back in the States, Edwin, Edmond, Reef, and Cindy unweave the tangled web woven by high-ranking Army officers who ran a drug ring in Vietnam and are now running an even bigger cartel out of Colombia. Along the way, they find time to also track down their elusive birth mother.
Michaelson deftly blends the search for family with the search for justice, employing a light touch that enhances the story. Details, especially about Edmond’s captivity and torture manage to convey what they must without overplaying them. The reunion scenes, first between Edwin and Edmond, and later between the twins and their mother, are touching but not cloying. The plot is quick-paced and action-packed, and the story’s resolution satisfying on all levels and nicely done. I can heartily recommend this book to anyone looking for an entertaining read.
Reviewed by: Barbara Peacock (2012)