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Blind Veil
Michael Lorde

Michael Lorde’s Blind Veil is not your grandparent’s life down on the farm kind of novel. It is so full of twists it’s a challenge to adequately review without giving away something. You have to read it to believe it. I will convey that Lorde strives to lull readers into the story in a manner akin to an uphill tug in the front rollercoaster car right before it drops over the edge. To assume you can guess what is going to happen next is a definite risk for the reader. In one paragraph you are experiencing a routine staging scene for a crime story. In the following paragraphs, Lorde’s creativity forces readers against the back of their seats braced for a drop into the ominous world of the paranormal.

Lorde places you somewhere on a farm somewhere in the mid-west. Sometimes farmers are late getting back to the house. We know what comes next. Somebody’s got to go get them. Emmett Simms’ evening walk to his barn serves this purpose. No surprise in that premise. Wrong. Nothing could be further from the truth. Right on page one is where things get brutal and interesting if such a thing is possible. Savvy and pulled in, readers’ senses awaken teetering up and down recovering from a terse reality. Evil looms where the good people live and thrive. Lorde’s juxtapositions are enough to prompt readers to rethink how they feel about docile looking farmland buildings or anything that could shield anything.

Emmett’s visit to his barn changes his life and the future of his family. Tragedy never turns back. Lorde hops back and forth across genres assimilating nuances of mystery, paranormal, and suspense to advance the Simms’ saga. Readers are shoved into a world of genetic altering conspiracies that has implications on the political-social fabric of our country. Lorde’s use of symbolism to portray common placating self-deceptions is a provocative premise. Imagine a world where only those who are labeled insane are the only ones shrewd enough to realize the truth.

Lorde’s characters effectively demonstrate that being captive does not keep them from knowing what they know. They, the insane, are target benefactors of our society’s “isms”. These isms manifest into other isms making the rest of us vulnerable. Emmett Simms thinks he is going for a summer stroll away from his isms. He discovers his real capacity to protect his family. Years later his nephew, Lamont Simms, a New York City cop goes on a boat outing to escape his own isms. His life is also set on an irreversible route of discord. Lamont soon discovers his capacity to survive perilous circumstances leading to the inevitable.

From farming communities to mean city streets, a dark link binds Lorde’s characters together all the way to the door of the oval office. Blind Veil’s seals the link capturing a respectable three out of five stars. Fans of the two-fisted hard-hitting cop thrillers will be left craving for more. Sci-fi fans will be prodded to consider what other darkness lurks behind a veil of blindness in our world of circumstances. One can only guess about what Lorde will write next.