#1526. Cultured by D.P. Lyle

This is the first novel reviewed in this blog by D.P Lyle, and Cultured is the sixth in the Jake Longly Thriller series. On one hand, this is an important story about human trafficking. As the result of my wife’s volunteer work on this cause, I’ve learned something about the size of this enterprise worldwide, and the targeting of young women in the U.S. who one might assume are immune to such outcomes as this. Unfortunately, it’s far more common than us typically naïve American men would care to believe. On the other hand, the first half of this book contains an excessive amount of what amounts to junior high school dialogue. I nearly gave up reading the story until after the halfway point when the immature dialogue mostly came to an end at the same time the plot picked up.

 

Jake Longly is a retired baseball player who earned enough money to buy a restaurant, Captain Rocky’s, which is on the beach in Gulf Shore’s Alabama. The bar is a happening place where Jake’s role is to be a face man, not to really run the place. His manager is Carla Martinez who knows how to run a bar and turn a profit. Jake really lives the life of a drunkard’s dream. His girlfriend is Nicole Jamison and she is one hot and smart woman. She likes to do work for Jake’s father, Ray Longly who is a private investigator. The group of friends includes Pancake, a 300+ pound computer wizard. The author repeatedly talked of Pancake’s ability to consume massive amounts of food all on Jake’s tab. Ray is a tough guy and he does not approve of his son’s post-baseball lifestyle, but Jake continues to help Ray out on his cases apparently because Nicole likes that action.

 

The action begins when the mother of April Wilkerson, Clarice, gets Ray to take the case of her daughter who has come up missing. The trail quickly leads to Jonathon Lindemann, founder of The Lindemann Method (TLM) which is meant to make people rich and to provide them with all pleasures possible in life. Essentially, TLM is a cult which drafts college age girls to work at his enterprise and provide sexual favors to all of the TLM members. The cost of membership is $120,000, so nearly all college age girls could not afford to join. Lindemann’s right hand person is Rhea Wilson. This is a story about wealthy people who make poor decisions, sex trafficking, beautiful women, money laundering, and a ponzi scheme. As noted above, after character development, the pace of the plot picks up at the halfway point.

 

So, the novel is one of good news and bad news. As noted, it’s a very important story that is too little understood in the U.S., and nearly intolerable juvenile dialogue.

 

 

West Coast Don