Review: White Line
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 15, 2013
In a brilliantly terse dance of words, Peter Wilben brings to life to an intricate cast of characters scattered across three continents. This is the harrowing tale of a man grappling with loss, abandonment, revenge, justice, atonement, and responsibility. Shouldering the burden of two lost brothers not his own, Joe sets out on a vendetta of sorts that flips his world upside down. The stark juxtaposition of the white collar man and the bloodied boxer fuse into the creation of a street-credible drug entrepreneur Curro Cano, a man with no past, no connections, no existence on the ledgers of good and evil. Our antihero finds himself rolled up in a world of cocaine and desperation; a world where rich kids bound for 'better education' live in slums spending every penny on blow or crack, where mothers become mules, friends are traitors, strangers are allies, and the blood-stained backdrop of death is just scenery for the orchestrated insanity of surviving. The morality of crime is distorted, fused with love, devotion, patriotism, and the zealous fight for freedom. There seems to be no end for the title's metaphor, White Line. Every one of them is crossed. In the end, however, the lingering question about Joe remains: is this the story of the real him coming out or the real him who he is hiding from? This book was the perfect gift for a suspense lover like myself!