K. N. Casper (1941–2021)

Interesting story of a Vietnam War Veteran who lost both legs above the knee and was told he wouldn't have enough stump left to be able to use a prostheses effectively. This prognosis was especially hard on Jason Crow as he had been a High School Football legend with an apparent future in professional football. His father wouldn't acknowledge this limit and insisted his son would be able to walk if he really wanted to. Jason trusted his father's opinion over the experts and dedicated his show more efforts to overcoming his loss of legs. When his father is killed and the police insisted it was suicide and refused to investigate, Jason with his friend and shadow, Zack Merchant. Adjusting to the handicaps and apparent pity that he viewed in the eyes of everyone he encountered was part of the challenge Jason needed to deal with. This story is one of contrasts that play Jason's former physical prowess against his now missing limbs and limited mobility along with his slowly acknowledging the effects of his injury and the life adjustments he must make to become independent. Initial self pity doesn't work with his intent to venerate his father and find the murderer who killed him. Jason's investigation run up against the prejudices of deep south where his father's black partner and sister's affection for the black son of his father's partner turned the whole community against them, especially the landed white affluent. Jason's tribulations and even physical altercations kept piling up as he learned of his mother's intent to divorce his father and further her intent to donate their common ranch property to a "Jim Jones" style minister and his church. Worse was his amnesia of the details of his injury. He kept flashing on elements of that event but, couldn't unravel the details. He also agonized over how his love interest would react to his missing limbs and whether he would still be able to consummate a marriage if she was still willing. Actual and imagined limitations plagued Jason but, he plunged ahead regardless. The twists in the story and the southern West Texas characters gave the plot plenty of shades. Jason manages against all odds and the surprise ending is a jewel. The twists and actions never cease. Deserves to be read more than once to fully appreciate the nuances. Treat yourself and get this book! show less

Author: Ken Casper
Published by: Bell Bridge Books
Age Recommended: Adult
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Book Blog For: GMTA
Rating: 5

Review:

"As the Crow Dies" by Ken Casper was a very good historical mystery, thriller and suspense read. This author will give you a quite a read about a post Viet Nam story of Jason Crow who has now return home as a double amputee ...and his father is determined that he will walk again. "Through painful effort and sheer determination, he had learned to walk with show more prosthetics something the doctors told him he would never be able to do. He couldn’t wait to show his father. But when Jason who was a former football star arrives home, he will not be able to walk to his father because apparently he has committed suicide. Making no sense to Jason and is determined to find out what has happened to his father. Jason was sure that his father had been murdered and would take on the case to find out who that was by "slowly building support among his family friend, his father's friends and slowly builds a case for murder." How he goes about this is really intriguing. This is the time that I will say you must pick up the good read "As the Crow Dies" to she the what, why, how and where to it all. This author did a excellent job with this read creating a memorable and fascinating read with some drama that even deals with some racial issues. All of the characters and there were many, were well developed captivating at this time in 1968. Be ready for a unique plot, with mystery, thrills, suspense along with many twist and turns. Questions that remain to be asked and answered: " Will his girlfriend still want him? How can he ever be whole again if even his friends look on him with pity?" You will get all of these answered and more from the read "As the Crow Dies" and Yes, I would recommend this book as a good read. show less

This, a Netgalley ebook read with thanks, was a definite change of pace for me, both in setting and protagonist. It's West Texas in the 1968, and our hero is Jason Crow, not long home from Vietnam where he was nearly killed in a bombing raid. He made it through – but barely, and somewhat mysteriously: he was shot in both legs, and no one knows who set tourniquets on both, which prevented him from bleeding to death … but which, because it took days for anyone to find him, resulted in the show more amputations of both legs above the knee. He went from all-star athlete to wheelchair-bound in no time at all, and his only sometimes small-seeming consolation is that at the urging of his father he has against doctors' expectations learned to use prosthetics. They're awkward and painful, and in them he is inches shorter than he used to be, but he's upright, and the people around him are always more comfortable when he's upright. Therefore, spared their pity and curiosity, he is more comfortable.

Then, just as Jason is headed home with the new prosthetics, his father is found dead. The police take the scene at face value and call it a suicide: his father succumbed to the stresses of trouble in his marriage and a pending IRS audit of his business and, they gently add, what has happened to Jason, and he shot himself. And Jason doesn't buy it, adamant that it cannot be the way it looks – it had to be murder. He slowly builds support among his family and friends and his father's friends, and slowly builds a case for murder.

Jason is the first-person narrator, a good choice. He's not perfect, not now that he is dealing with all that he has lost and all that he has to struggle to regain – and, he realizes, not before the war when he was a football star and all around golden boy. He is bitter, of course, and highly self-conscious, of course, but beginning to regain a bit of control over his life and future, which makes his father's abrupt death an even harsher blow than otherwise. He's a good, solid character, angry without becoming strident and annoying, and recovering at what feels like a natural pace. As the Crow Dies is no cozy mystery, and Jason is no cozy-mystery detective, just a young man driven to find out who killed his father and why. I think the only real improvement that could be made to the narrative, which I hope happens in later books of the series, is that the reader does not need to be reminded quite so often of Jason's legs. Of course they, or their lack, would be constantly in the forefront of his thoughts, and of course they, or their lack, would alter his every action – but nearly every page of the book saw a reference to the amputations and their effects, even if he was just sitting or lying somewhere thinking about the murder. The reminders were, to put it mildly, unnecessary, and even grew a little irritating.

My only other real complaint about the book is a quibble, really; just something that bugged me: Jason's best friend is his soon-to-be business partner, and now his caretaker, and a more perfect creature there never was. Seriously, everyone should have someone like this in their lives, only that's not possible because no one's this perfect: patient, strong, funny, never-tiring … he has lived with the Crows since he was a boy because of issues within his own family, and is a better brother to Jason than Jason's twin. I just wish that once, just once, he had lost his temper or not been exactly where he was needed at all times or … something; he comes off more as a paid retainer than a friend.

One thing is absolutely certain; I will remember this book for a gift it gave me in the form of a poem.

DEATH IS NOTHING AT ALL
Henry Scott Holland
Canon of St. Paul's Cathedral, London 1847-1918

Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other that we are still.
Call me by my old familiar name
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used
Put no difference in your tone
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow
laugh, as we always laughed
At the little jokes we enjoyed together
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was
Let it be spoken without effort
Without the ghost of a shadow on it
Life means all that it ever meant
It is the same as it ever was
There is absolute unbroken continuity.
What is death but a negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval,
Somewhere very near
Just around the corner.
All is well.
Nothing is past; nothing is lost
One brief moment and all will be as it was before
How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again! show less

Received from Netgalley for review, thank you. I pounced on Taking a Stand on Netgalley as soon as I recognized the author's name: a little while back I received, and very much enjoyed, Ken Casper's As the Crow Dies from Netgalley. This is a new series, set in the present day rather than "Crow"'s 70's, but there will be overlaps: both are set in Coyote Springs, Texas, and in fact the characters in this have dinner in The Crow's Nest, the restaurant run by the family at the center of the show more other series.

Tori Carr, just honorably discharged from the Air Force and flying home in her own Twin Cessna, is a nicely built character. That is, of course she's gorgeous – a tall leggy blonde – but her construction on the page is equally well done. She is more than the pretty: she is committed to achieving her dream of flying for a living, which the Air Force did not provide her. In the meantime, she has come home to work with her father in the business he started, Carr Enterprises, a high level real estate developer. She goes straight to work on the Riverbend Project, the multi-million-dollar plan to take the Santa Marta district of town – the rundown and ramshackle Barrio – and develop the heck out of it into a high-priced community, golf courses and all.

Problem is, a decent sized chunk of the area on which Carr Ent. wants to build is owned by another company, Amorado Construction. Jesse Amorado, who inherited the company from his father, is of Mexican descent, as are the other inhabitants of the neighborhood (for he not only owns the area but lives there), and knows better than anyone how strong the ties of neighborhood can be. This is not something anyone in that district is willing to sell … although the inhabitants who live in homes that have been bought by Carr Enterprises, Jesse tells Tori, have been left with little choice. She is informed that her father's company has refrained from making even necessary repairs on the houses they rent to the inhabitants, leaving them little choice but to vacate. She can't believe it – that's not how her father operates … but she has to believe it. When she goes to the area to see for herself, it's in front of her face.

Naturally, since she is an attractive young woman and Jesse is an attractive young man, the antagonistic sparks between the two of them mutate into other kinds of sparks. Theirs is not the only romance developing, which is rather nice in one direction and unfortunate in another, unrequited, direction. I like the background characters, and I particularly like how the bad 'uns are written, although somewhat as in As the Crow Dies the climax is cinematically dramatic, somewhat much so for my tastes; still, the dollar amounts involved in the plot justify extreme action, the bad guy is very much a bad guy (though I hadn't thought he was that bad), and it gives the hero a chance to be a very good hero indeed without detracting from the abilities of the rescue-ee. It's a satisfying tale – well done. show less