The Rook

 Homeless people play a role in "The Rook" by Steven James, The book jacket blurb says, "The Rook" is an adrenaline-laced page-turner that will hold you captive until the very end." I am not sure it is "adrenaline-laced", but it is one of the few books that held me captive, long after my eyes got too blurry to read anymore.

A homeless man delivers an envelope to a couple in a motel room. A deranged homeless man commits suicide. A quote: "...cruised past a group of homeless immigrants who stared blankly at our car from the curb.", evoked memories. Action in the novel takes place in San Diego, California, but that scene could be anywhere USA. I not only envisioned the fictional scene, but also the mood of the people sitting on the curb, grime silence, watching the world go by.

On "immigrants, transients, the homeless: "The system doesn't care if a few vagrants or illegal aliens end up dead. The nameless don't make the news. To the system they don't exist." I disagree about not making the news. I have read "believed to be a transient" in reports of the discovery of dead bodies.

A sentence on page 399 of the library book reads "...and began to pick my through the backstreets...". A previous reader wrote "way" after the word "my".

At a funeral for a homeless man, someone remarked that he "did have family." I am assuming that meant the "Fifteen transient men and seven women..." who attended the funeral. Homeless peers do become like family in the same manner that co-workers do. On the streets that family type relationship is vital to survival.

On controlling people James wrote: "If you can find the thing that matters most to someone and either promise to help him get it or threaten to take it away, he'll do almost anything for you ~ go against his values, his morals, his religion."

"Always leave your enemy an escape route. Never corner him. Even a mouse will fight fiercely when it's trapped in a corner."
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"If you're confident enough, people will go wherever you lead them, believe whatever you say. That's how Jeffry Dahmer did it. Complete confidence."