An intriguing tale of a young African girl and a Texas PI who unexpectedly join forces when she flees her country and ends up in the US. Jackaleena is intrepid and while her story might be a tad implausible (the stowaway aspect for sure) it's also inspirational. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Since I’m the first person to rate and review this book, it seems like the best thing to do would be to just warn people away from it, try to save them some time and/or money. It’s sad, it’s always sad when a book fails so dramatically, but in this case very much necessary.
Why did I even read it? Well, because I often try new random things and I’ve had generally pretty good experience with this publisher, in fact this might very well be the proverbial one off, the perfect dud for them. And because an African based story seemed interesting. And, and this is really the main reason, because it wasn’t advertised as what it is, which is, very much so, Christian fiction…it also wasn’t advertised as a sh*te book, so really there’s just no truth in advertising. To be fair, I have nothing against religion or religious fiction, I just don’t want to read someone’s inferior interpretation of it wrapped up in an (in this case extremely) inferior fiction presentation.
Mind you, there were signs. I should have put this book down when…
1. The first few pages advertised praise by one unknown writer and a bunch of random people, CEOs and such, probably author’s friends.
2. When two of those praises mentioned faith. Although discreetly mixed in with other things.
3. When I read the first sentence. Seriously…who messes up the first sentence. It was clunky and weird, sounding very much like crap debuts attempts tend to.
4. After the first chapter or at the very least a second one. The concept alone seemed completely preposterous. Imagine…a prosecutor on a rape case starts weeping in court and then goes to the judge’s private chambers and proceeds to tell him her life story. Seriously?
But no, my obsessive compulsive nature forced me to read this steaming pile of doodoo start to finish. But at least now you don’t have to. Because I’m going to give this book the review it deserves, not the praises lavished upon it by all those randos who I am certain don’t read or review nearly as much as I do, combined. And I’m going to go over all the entire plot, so if you haven’t read the book and for some reason planning to, you should probably walk away right now…
Still here? All righty then, let’s go. So we already covered the improbable beginning, but then the narration switches to tell the story of the eponymous Mr. Carter, a nowhere Texan detective investigating an apparent suicide of a local teenage cheerleader. For some inexplicable reason this is told in first person, despite the fact that it’s meant to be the African girl’s, Jackaleena’s, story. From there on it unevenly alternates between the two and this unevenness is dramatic to the extent that it reads like it might have been written by two different people.
The Carter story is somewhat more palatable of the two, though he’s not exactly a likeable or interesting or engaging protagonist. Instead he’s a fairly prototypical small Texan white good ole’ boy whose interests include ignoring his wife for about two decades after the premature death of their child and going out into nature, camping.
Meanwhile on the African continent, a young girl’s entire family and entire village is brutally slaughtered by local guerilla fighters, but she manages to find her way to an orphanage, where they take good care of her, giving her food and a through wash, brain included. Which is to say she gets to abandon her primitive local beliefs and discover Christianity. This is exactly how it is represented in the book. The contrast of local primitivism to the Western style mentality is very striking. The conversion is conducted as heavyhandedly as the rest of the book. The author isn’t one for nuances and his ideas of morality are very black and white, unambiguous and unimaginative. And you get a lot of it, too, like a lot a lot.
So eventually, Jackaleena stows herself away on a ship bound for US, comes to US, gets asylum status and then gets adopted. Guess by whom?
If you answered why, it must be the intrepid Mr. Carter, you are correct. Because by now he has rediscovered his faith and decided to be nice to his wife again and she always wanted to adapt so there you go. Also, it stands to mention the second Carter says sorry to his wife, she was perfectly accommodating and forgiving, she was all like, yes, dear, I completely forgive you two decades of neglect, one of which sexless, and I will tots go on a date with you now. Because, you know, it’s a simple book. A book for simple people about simple people. Or as the kids these days say, basic.
Throughout the book Jackaleena is constantly praised for her superior intellect (then again comparing to whom?), but frankly she seems at best average bright for a child her age, mostly just chatty in a very unedited sort of way and very eager for her purpose, which was apparently to come to the US get an education and become a prosecutor, but frankly if that was her purpose, she wouldn’t be weeping in courts. Which is to say that the author can write children about as realistically as he can write adults…not very.
That isn’t the only thing with his writing, outside of overselling the religious angle and underperforming on the plot, there are just some random things, like incorrect word usage (just apparently not knowing definitions to notorious or ascertain) or inability to do basic math.
Oh, and another precious thing about this crapfest…the case Carter was working on, well it turns out that the other cheerleaders (from families with money) basically strung up this girl from the proverbial wrong side of the fence and put cigarettes out on her, until she died. Then didn’t mean to kill her, they were just messing with her. And you know the solutions that the local legal system comes up with? Let them go with some community service. And you know why? Because the dead girl’s father makes an impassionate speech that begins with I’m just a refinery worker and goes something like…but now that you done told me how my only child and her unborn baby died, I completely forgive you and I’m totally ok with things no, no charges will be pressed. Seriously? And what the f* does his job have to do with it? It is because he’s such a simple kind of guy that he should have such an uncomplicated morality and such easy time forgiving and getting on with life. Maybe that’s just how they hoe those roads down in Texas. Either way…wrong.
Wrong like this book, which even speedread took too long. If the author was so determined to go proselytizing, he should have at least made an effort to wrap it up in something decent. But no, you get this instead. I do think the author meant well and had good intentions, trying to raise awareness of the situation in Africa and refugee crisis and all that, but it all got buried under his inferior writing efforts. At least it was kind of fun to review. And ideally inspired a fun review to read. At any rate…stay away from this book. Far, far away. You’re welcome. Thanks Netgalley.