I’ve reviewed six of Dugoni’s novels, all of which were in the thriller/murder mystery genre. Six books means that I like his writing. This story was referred to me by my daughter who is the communications director of a substantial nonprofit called Orbis. Orbis is known as the flying eye hospital which provides ophthalmologic care to people in economically poor countries around the world. In the course of the story, Sam went to work for Orbis as a means of escaping the traumas he had experienced at home.
Sam Hell, actually Sam Hill, had been born with a genetic flaw that led to his diagnosis of ocular albinism. He had no pigment in his irises which made his eyes look red. His condition was rare and he seemed to be immediately rejected by the medical community as well as the people at his Catholic church where his mother had been a devout and dedicated woman. When he got to school age, Sam found that the parochial school’s head mistress, Sister Beatrice, wanted to ban him from her school. Sam’s mother won the battle with Sister Beatrice, and despite his admission to the school, she continued to try to set him up for failure. His peers at school immediately rejected Sam who they dubbed as “the devil boy,” therefore “Sam Hell.” It was a nickname that stuck with Sam the rest of his life.
It was a school bully, David Bateman, who began to repeatedly abuse him, and it was only after the intensity of the abuse was discovered that Bateman was expelled. However, Bateman was to come back into the picture when these two antagonists were adult men. Through elementary and middle school Sam protected himself from further rejection by being a loner. It was not until the beginning of high school that he struck up good friendships with other students who were also being ostracized, Ernie, the only black in the school, and Mickie, a young woman from a highly dysfunctional and poor family. The three of them stuck together in what was a lifelong friendship.
Sam was academically successful as an ophthalmologist, but he had always been hindered in his ability to find other good relationships. It was his work as an ophthalmologist that led to his next encounter with Bateman when his wife brought their six-year-old daughter to his office due to her visual problems. Sam quickly realized that her visual probems were due to repeated head trauma that had no doubt been caused by her father’s beatings. Bateman’s wife was so terrified of her husband, it took her a while to admit the abuse. Bateman worked as a cop and had developed into a full-blown psychopath.
I’ve revealed the main plot lines and I refuse to be a spoiler by revealing too much. Dugoni has provided fascinating characters who felt quite real. I learned to love Sam, his parents, Ernie, and Mickie. I also learned to hate Sister Beatrice and Bateman. It takes a great author to evoke such intense feelings in me.
My only problem with the story came at the end. As Dugoni nicely resolved the various plots and subplots, as Sam’s parents aged and got quite ill, he reexamined his lifelong atheism which he had achieved largely by rebelling against his mother’s devotion to the church. He could not tolerate her repeated comments about all things being due to “God’s Will.” However, as he continued to encounter his own parents’ growing frailties, he began to reexamine his own beliefs. As he mourned the loss of his mother, he found himself praying and using his mother’s rosary. Perhaps most other readers won’t have as strong a negative reaction to Dugoni’s descriptions in this regard, but I also found that it did not negatively impact my feelings about his entire book. This is a story that’s worth reading, all the way to the end. It gets my strongest, 5/5 recommendation.
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