Heat Signature

I read Teasley's short story collection a few years ago... "Glow in the Dark"... (I think) and remembered her name when I saw this book at the shop. I remebered her specifically for her keen ability to render complex, 'outsider' characters that you not only intimately recognize, but recognize yourself in them and their, mostly extreme, situations. The mark of a real literary writer in my opinion; the ability to take protagonists and situations that are alien to your experience yet allow you to not only identify, but feel with them. (That and gorgeous and profound prose in Teasley's case). Anyway, this book was different than what I expected after reading the stories. While yes, it is told through the eyes of a character, Sam, who lives on the margins of society, it is also painfully clear that he is living in the margins of his own life. And the journey he takes -- and we take, breathlessly, with him -- is one that is layered and nuanced in a way that is far more than "messed up guy sorts himself out on the road". Teasley has crafted a literary noir-supernatural-erotic-thriller that is -- in this reviewers opinion -- ultimately a story about being caught by that secret part of yourself that you never acknowldge, but are always running from.

Over a decade has past since thirty one years old half Native American Sam Brown's African-American mother July was raped, tortured, and murdered. He never fully recovered from the trauma though his stepfather pipe fitter Joe Braxton has tried to help him move on as they share a home in Twenty-Nine Palms, California. Sam becomes upset to learn that July's killer is being paroled. Taking leave from his nursing job at the nearby marine base, Sam begins a trek up the Pacific coast where he finds women for short affairs but even he is not sure what he seeks. As he continues towards Oregon, he thinks back to that horrid day when his mom was murdered and his beginning to know the darkness will never fully leave him, but that with good people especially a caring woman one can move on just like Joe hopes and prays for him. This is a psychological drama starring an individual who years after his mother's tragic death remains traumatized by the atrocity. Sam is human, as his worst nightmare becomes real again when his mom's rapist-killer is freed. His journey up the coast is one of personal searching and solace; women he meets help him to understand that you never forget nor you never stop loving, but you must keep on living; that is the best way to honor one's deceased loved ones. Lisa Teasley provides a deep insightful character study. Harriet Klausner