FICTION
Robert J. DeLuca
Archway Publishing
978-1-4808-2529-1 (paperback) 352 pages, $21.99 (also available in hardcover and as ebook
Robert J. DeLuca’s novel, The Pact with the Devil, offers an intriguing variation on a classic story.
This time, two men who are essentially devils—a crooked Texas real estate developer and a major Mexican drug lord—strike a Faustian bargain to help each other survive major cash flow problems within their individual empires.
The Texan, Travis Nelson, has developed many realty projects, including numerous homes near the Texas-Mexico border. And outwardly, at least, he is viewed by others as highly successful—a solid citizen and family man. However, he has now overextended his investments and missed loan payments. Banks and other lenders are closing in on him. And life within his storied family is much less perfect than his admirers know.
Meanwhile, the Durango drug lord Rodolfo Perez Morales is having new difficulties moving drugs from Colombia into the U.S. safely and then getting them distributed across the country, because of increased Texas border security. At a cartel meeting, he tells his lieutenants and accountant urgently: “If we cut back on our suppliers they will go to other cartels. They will raise the price on us. We could be ruined. We must reopen Texas as soon as possible.”
Travis and Rodolfo soon are brought together after Rodolfo learns both of Travis’s stature and his rumored financial problems. After Rodolfo sends men to rescue Travis’s younger daughter from a ransom kidnapping by low-level Mexican thugs, Travis agrees to accept cartel money for his border properties and let Rodolfo use them as safe houses for drug shipments.
DeLuca’s writing generally is good, but certain stylistic choices could have been stronger. Character introductions sometimes seem more reminiscent of a play than a novel. And characters sometimes speak too many words without interruption as they both try to handle a current situation and provide some back story at the same time.
Also, some readers may not favor the author’s choices to include detailed background information and occasional statements of fact within the flow of fiction. For example, in chapter 3, after kidnappers have seized Travis Nelson’s daughter, Pam, and called her mother, Diane Nelson, to demand a ransom, the author interrupts with information: “It has been estimated recently that kidnappings in Mexico are approaching 2,000 per year.”
Then, in the chapter that introduces Rodolfo, three pages are devoted to some basic Mexican and cartel history before DeLuca begins describing how the drug lord runs his illegal business behind a legitimate city sanitation service.
The book’s action sequences generally are well handled. And, tensions mount quickly after Rodolfo’s and Travis’s secret pact collapses once the FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency get wind of it. Travis is seized by Rodolfo and faces execution as Travis’s two sons try to pull off a desperate, last-second rescue mission.
Can any story involving a deal or pact among devils have a plausibly happy ending? Possibly not. Robert J. DeLuca, however, has created a surprise, bittersweet conclusion that should satisfy many readers of The Pact with the Devil.
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