Author:Len Joy

Publishers: BQB Publishing 

ISBN: 978-1-952782-51-0


Len Joy, author of Dry Heat, had published at least three other books; Everyone Dies Famous-2020, Better Days-2018, and American Past Time-2014. (2023, inside back cover).

Joy enjoys competing in triathlons and represents the USA as part of Team USA. He currently resides in Evanston, Illinois with his wife.

The main characters of this novel are Joey Blade, his father- Dutch, his mother Callie, and his sister- Solita, and his best friend -Lua, and his sometimes girlfriend-Mallory. Dutch owned a major engine operation where he built state of the art engines for those who could afford to pay. Callie worked in the family business alongside Dutch. 

Solita, Joey’s sister, married Gareth. Gareth they hoped would be coming into their family business. That was not his heart’s calling. His greatest love was golf and he excelled at it. He dreamt of being a golf pro. Would he ever realize his dream?

Mallory came from a very bad family life. Her father worked for Dutch. He was a drunken hardass that nobody respected for anything except his ability to work on high tech engines. Her mother had taken off when she was young and she had pretty much raised herself. Mallory was a grade or two below Joey and had always been smitten with him. They hung out a lot and were best friends too. She was hurt when Joey hooked up with Wendy and sort of dissed her. However, Mallory had to admit that Wendy had all of the trappings that Mallory did not. 

Wendy’s family was rich and powerful in their small Arizona town. She was beautiful and sought after by all of the guys in their school. Wendy was slated to go to an Ivy League college. She snubbed her nose at lots of other students, put them down, and she played Joey like a Stradivarius violin.

Joey sometimes helped his father at the engine factory when he was not on the football field practicing. He had big plans to go play football for one of the major colleges who had been courting him since his junior year and he was in the process of narrowing down his selections. He had been celebrated as an all-star in his hometown high school and was looking toward a bright future in college and beyond. Joey had recently taken up with  the daughter of a very upscale business man and thought they might be in love. Her name was Wendy. They had been hot and heavy for quite some time. Mallory was hurt but left Joey alone to do as he pleased. 

Lua was a huge, jovial Samoan kid who was always there to help Joey out. They had been best friends since grade school. 

At the end of the school year the students gathered at the school to make a bonfire. Some of the students had liquor and some had marijuana. At one point one of the kids was messing with the fire and caught himself on fire. Joey put him out saving his life. A bit later the fire got out of control and as the sirens blared the kids scrambled. Wendy had been in her ex-boyfriend’s truck and she called to Joey to jump in the back. The kid that Joey put out also jumped in. Things turned fast. 

I enjoyed reading this book, but it did make me mad how readily some people can lie and deceive. And this from people who you thought cared for you. Read it. Enjoy it and learn from their mistakes.