Please welcome Eric Keller, author of Half-Built Houses.
Eric will give a copy of Half-Built Houses to a randomly drawn commenter
ISBN: 978-1-62420-315-2
Author: Eric Keller
Email: kellepc@hotmail.com
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Website: NA
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Genre: mystery
Excerpt Heat Level: 1
Book Heat Level: 1
TAGLINE
All the taught intrigue and compelling personalities of a
classic, courtroom thriller combined with the twists and turns of an engrossing
murder mystery in a Canadian setting.
BLURB
Charley Ewanuschuk has been mistreated all his life
and now survives by moving through society as unnoticed as possible. However,
when a murder occurs behind the half-built house he is squatting in society
takes notice of the introverted homeless man as he becomes the prime murder
suspect. Brian Cox managed to charm his way into a good job in a national law
firm but, when the recession hit, he learned that charm is a disposable
commodity. Fired by the firm and forced to take on Legal Aid files to pay the
bills, Charley's murder trial becomes Brian's first major case. However, this
will be no straightforward case. As the trial progresses it becomes apparent
forces are working behind the scenes to ensure the homeless man takes the fall
for a crime. Told from the points of view of the accused, the lawyer, the
detective and the manipulator, Half-Built Houses provides all the thrilling
intrigue, clever ingenuity and interesting individuals readers have come to
expect form classic courtroom dramas.
REVIEW:
Half-Built
Houses
Eric Keller
5 stars
Published by Rogue Phoenix Press
Reviewed by Nancy A. Dafoe
In the vein of the pulsing arterial
found in John Grisham’s crime/legal thrillers, Eric Keller’s Half-Built Houses is fast paced,
meticulously developed, filled with plot twists, and the kind of complicated
characters that keep you thinking about them long after you close the pages.
Sex, drugs, and alcohol may lead to the predictable crime, but little else
about Keller’s novel is predictable.
Keller’s familiarity with the law
and court cases is apparent and the plot moves seamlessly through to an
unexpected conclusion. More than a riveting, criminal procedural taking place
in Calgary, however, Half-Built Houses
offers subtle but significant social commentary on the issues of homelessness,
the long-lasting damages of bullying, and the inequalities in class and social
structures.
Charley Ewanuschuk, a
homeless character accused of the murder of a young woman, stands at the center
of the story, but Half-Built Houses
is as much the story of Brian Cox, the charming but struggling young lawyer
trying his first major criminal case. We know the crime in the opening pages as
victim, Natalie Peterson, lies dying in the white snow, but Keller allows the
reader to see into the characters’ heads and actions, shifting perspectives
from the murdered woman to the suspected killer, to the defense lawyer to the
Crown Prosecutor Clay Matthews, and the hardened detective Randall Jenkins on
the trail of something that stinks. Lurking in the shadows, Charley is not as
alone as he believes. Hugh Young and his son Jason may have wealth and power,
but they, too, operate in the shadows. We come to know these characters’
backstories and circumstances leading up to their devastating encounter.
Highly visual, readers
will feel as if they are watching this drama play out. With no false notes,
Keller’s novel feels right even when everything is going wrong, down to the
lurking ambiguity.
EXCERPT
After the car
had been towed away, Charley had gone back to the basement, but he heard sirens
and had to flee before he could collect his belongings. Knowing he would stand
out as an oddity wandering about in a rich residential area as people started
leaving their homes for work, he headed back across the river to the downtown
core where the homeless merely blended into the cement. There he numbly walked
the icy streets before settling into an ATM kiosk to warm up and rest.
Sitting on the
wet floor, he did a quick inventory. He still had his good coat, two
cheeseburgers, four dollars, and shoes, but no socks, gloves, or hat. It was
thirty below and he had nowhere to go, and he could already feel the dirty
slush on the floor soaking through his jeans. Over all the years he had been in
Calgary, Charley had been in some extremely difficult spots, but this was one
of the worst situations he had faced.
As he pulled one
of the slightly squashed cheeseburgers out of his pocket, the key to the cheap
padlock he had put on the basement door fell onto the floor. He picked it up.
Despite being twenty-five years old, this was the only key he had ever owned.
He remembered the joy he felt when he closed the lock for the first time. It
was more than simply having a place of his own; it was a sense of survivor's
pride because he could look past making it through each day and ponder a future
for himself. Now he realized he could not be found carrying the key, so he
slipped it into the slot in the bank machine, the slot where people threw away
their receipts showing how much money they had in their account.
He was only able
to stay in the kiosk for an hour before a security guard found him. The guard
clearly did not want to send the pathetic man out into the exceptionally harsh
cold, but he sheepishly said that the bank employees would be showing up soon,
and they would give him grief if they found someone sleeping next to the bank
machine. Charley left without a word.
Having nowhere
else to go, he instinctively walked to the day labourer corner. Because the
weather was so bad and he was there so early, he got picked up right away to
shovel snow. Charley had worked for the boss before, and the man took pity on
him, giving him a good pair of gloves and a toque.
~ * ~
Jenkins was
checking missing person reports when Wilson strutted into the office and
dropped an enlarged printout of a library card on his desk. The picture on the
card was of a thin, unsmiling young man with thick glasses and messy hair. It
matched the description the neighbour at the crime scene had given them. Wilson
sat down and said, "Our basement squatter has a name. Charley Ewanuschuk.
The address and phone number he gave are fakes though."
"Did anyone
at the library know him?"
"Sort of.
One of the librarians said the guy's been coming in about once a week for
years, but she doesn't think he's ever said a word to anybody. She did say he
was cleaner than the other homeless people and never had a late book, so he has
that going for him."
"A name and
a picture. We've found people with less." Jenkins, now feeling hopeful
this would be a quicker case than he had anticipated, stood up and grabbed his
coat. "Let's go check the usual spots."
~ * ~
Even though he
had been extremely tired and his feet had screamed with cold, Charley had been
content to push a shovel all day as the mundane, physical work was relaxing and
allowed him to ponder his situation. By the end of the day, he had forced
himself to conclude it was not hopeless. He could not go back to the house he
had been using, but that did not mean he could not find another abandoned
construction site to use. It would take some time, but he had time; he had
little else, but he had time. When the work was done, he was driven back to the
corner, given sixty dollars, and told to keep the gloves and the hat. It was
enough money to get a room at the hostel for the night. Life would continue to
be hard, but it would not be impossible.
As he started
walking away, a truck pulled up, unloading another crew of day labourers, and
one of the workers called out to him, "Hey, you. Guy who never
talks."
He recognized
the man as a regular at the corner whom he had worked with a few times. He
pointed at himself questioningly.
"Yeah, you.
Just thought you should know that the cops were out here this morning showing
your picture around. You may want to lay low for a few days."
The man knew
Charley well enough not to expect a response, so he turned to jog after his
friends, leaving Charley alone on the frozen sidewalk. Renewed panic struck at
him, easily pushing away the optimism he had gained throughout the day. He had
not even considered the police would look for him. He had always seen himself
as a mere visitor moving about beneath the notice of the real inhabitants of
the city, so the thought that someone would look for him never occurred to him.
Charley had never been to jail, but he had overheard much about the place from
day labourers, and being locked up was one of his greatest fears among an
impressive list of fears. It was not actually being deprived of his freedom so
much as being constantly surrounded by people with no privacy or reprieve that
he knew would be an unimaginable hell for him. He could not go to jail.
REVIEW:
Half-Built
Houses
By Eric Keller
41/2 Stars
Reviewed by Tamara White
The city of Calgary in Alberta,
Canada in the backdrop for Eric Keller’s intense and gripping legal thriller
the Half Built Houses.
Charley Ewanuschuk is a homeless man
who found comfort in being mostly invisible to the world around him. But the
events on a stormy winter night in Calgary plunge him head first into a murder
where the almost mute Charley becomes the main suspect instead of the hero.
Charley’s quiet distinctiveness doesn’t just draw the reader into his narrative
but makes him a target for the other less desirable characters. Charley’s
lawyer, Brain Cox, who has his own set backs, is determined to free his client
from the murder charge. Brian has a strong character and determination that
balances out Charley’s introverted personality.
Eric Keller exposes the reader to
not only the grittiness of the legal system but also the vicious realities of
prison life. Half Built Houses is
filled to the brim with raw emotions and conflicts. Every time the reader
thinks they have it figured out Keller throws in another twist that sends the
reader in a new direction. One of the unique aspects of the book is the
perspective of the book shifts between several of the characters. This gives
the reader a full understanding of the vested interested each character has in
the murder. Keller’s novel exposes how life is never black or white and happy
endings are better saved for fairy tales.
Half-Built
Houses
By Eric Keller
41/2 Stars
Reviewed by G. Lloyd Helm
Half-Built
Houses is a crime
novel with elements of the classic procedural story. The crime, the cover up,
the police investigation. The difference with this one is that it is set in the
great white north of Calgary, Canada. It evokes the place and the people very
well.
Eric Keller has written a truly
great book here. It is filled with interesting characters, all of whom are
believable. There are certain of them who are so crushingly sad I could hardly
read them without crying.
Charley, a lead character, is
homeless and tortured and I felt ever icy shiver of his life on the streets of
Calgary. His luck has gone from bad to worse when he witnesses a murder, and is
arrested for that same murder. Brian, the legal aide public defender who gets
to be Charley's lawyer is believable. He is scrambling to pay his bills and
maintain his life style and could probably have just gone through the motions
of defending Charley, but he feels for the homeless man and so works his tail
off for his client.
This book is well worth the read. I
only gave it four and a half stars because the book did seem to slide over into
TV cop story a little bit, but Half-Built
Houses is still a great story.
REVIEW:
Half-Built
Houses
By Eric Keller
5 Stars
Reviewed by James Charles
Half-Built
Houses is a crime
novel with elements of the classic procedural story. The crime, the cover up,
the police investigation. The difference with this one is that it is set in the
great white north of Calgary, Canada. It evokes the place and the people very
well.
Eric Keller has written a truly
great book here. It is filled with interesting characters, all of whom are
believable. There are certain of them who are so crushingly sad I could hardly
read them without crying.
Charley, a lead character, is
homeless and tortured and I felt ever icy shiver of his life on the streets of
Calgary. His luck has gone from bad to worse when he witnesses a murder, and is
arrested for that same murder. Brian, the legal aide public defender who gets
to be Charley's lawyer is believable. He is scrambling to pay his bills and
maintain his life style and could probably have just gone through the motions
of defending Charley, but he feels for the homeless man and so works his tail
off for his client.
This book is well worth the read. I
only gave it four and a half stars because the book did seem to slide over into
TV cop story a little bit, but Half-Built
Houses is still a great story.
AUTHOR BIO:
Eric Keller is a lawyer living in
Calgary, Alberta.
