CANE AND ABE by James Grippando

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Grippando, a south Florida resident, presents a stand alone novel involving an indictment of the sugar growing companies harvesting cane in the mid section of Florida. These companies, collectively known as “Big Sugar,” have been there for many years and have the reputation of being laws unto themselves.

Abe Beckham, a prosecutor for the state of Florida, becomes involved with an ongoing investigation seeking a serial killer targeting white women who are married or are dating a black man.  At one point in his past, Abe had been married to a black woman that was killed by cancer.  At the present time he is married to a girl he had been involved with prior to his meeting Samantha Vine, his deceased wife.
The serial killer had left the mutilated bodies of his victims on the cane fields of the sugar companies. Grippando incorporates an unofficial history of the horrible conduct of the sugar companies towards the people hired to harvest the cane as cutters. Alleged crimes include putting the workers into debt as soon as they start by charging for basic tools, eatable food and drinkable water, causing these people to become hopelessly indebted to their employers.
The search for the killer proceeds coupled with the sudden disappearance of Abe’s wife, Angelina, giving rise to the possibility of a copy cat killer  This might be a copycat because another victim is found, a  black girl, while the others were all white.
In typical Grippando fashion, the pace of the story is fast and absorbing with principal characters well sketched out.  Like most of his other novels the reader will find him or her self in an all nighter and caught in the action at the start.

1/15 Paul Lane

CANE AND ABE by James Grippando . Harper (January 20, 2015). ISBN: 978-0062295392. 368p.

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