What I’m reading – The Valley Walker by T.W. Dittmer

I’ve never been into books where magic plays a part. It gets flowery and too much into explanations.

But in this case, I’m making a definite exception. The magic and the dragon in it are the framework for a novel that just grabs you. T.W. doesn’t explain magic; it simply exists and it simply works. That works for us here. It was like the Force in Star Wars. It worked better before they went into explanations. It simply worked for the stories.

It starts with a woman named Terr Altro. She’s a special investigator as part of a drug task force. She’s been careful to build a wall around herself that’s high, deep, and wide. No one comes into her world. Physical touch is something she disdains. She doesn’t reach out and lets no one in. Her coldness is an island, and there’s a big sign posted on its shore that reads “Go away.”

That doesn’t stop someone from painting a target on her.

Enter John Walker, a man who kills three assassins sent against her and is out the door before the first assassin has even hit the floor. John is a complex person interested in doing the right thing. He’s targeting the heroin trade and those behind it. And he’s invaded Teri’s island and is drawing her out of it into the world of men and women.

And that’s just the opening pages.

What follows is an investigation into the drug world, ranging from the lowest users to the upper echelons of corporate America and the halls of the Pentagon.

And smack in the middle of it is Walker. A man the Hmong people call the Valley Walker. He’s a warrior with immense powers. He considers some people family and will do anything for them.

All this brings him and Teri into a collision course with the men behind the heroin trade.

But the battle is much bigger than that. It’s a clash of good versus evil. It’s a war where people exchange the souls of men for cold hard cash.

And it has one hell of an ending that I suspected about halfway through but wasn’t confirmed until the end.

The book is easy to read, and once I started, I had trouble putting it down. It made me want to learn more about the Hmong people and some of the darker parts of the Vietnam War to include the enslaving of men and women to drugs.

And to T.W… This book would make one hell of a graphic novel. If you ever get it out there in that form, I’ll be the first in line to buy it.

I’m a fan!