Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Cloning Galinda
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://jsmolders.com/
CITY:
STATE: FL
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
http://jsmolders.com/blog/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Business executive and writer. Has lead global industrial corporations, as well as programs for the Clinton Foundation in Latin America.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Jan Smolders is a business executive and writer. He has worked in Latin America for the Clinton Foundation and has led global industrial corporations. Smolders is also the author of historical fiction and thriller novels.
Alone in Boca Raton and Tennessee Tremors
In 2014, Smolders released Alone in Boca Raton. The volume follows a Mexican immigrant’s journey to become an American citizen. Mario Osorio has been in Boca Raton, FL for a short time and holds a visa that expires soon. A textile engineer by trade, he is asked to run a garment factory owned by Erin Brown. Erin says she will sponsor a green card for Mario, if he accepts the job. Erin hopes Mario can help her daughter, Jenny, create new designs. Mario is thrilled to have such a wonderful opportunity. However, he soon hears that his family is traveling illegally from Mexico to be with him. Mario worries that Erin will be disappointed in him if she learns about his undocumented family members. However, he ultimately tells her about them. Mario’s sister and mother are detained by ICE, and his brother is abducted. Meanwhile, Mario and Jenny are falling for one another. Mario wonders if Jenny’s boyfriend might be responsible for his brother’s kidnapping. A contributor to the Blue Ink Review website criticized “the novel’s climax, in which the malefactors confess too readily and the Osorioses’ conflict resolves too neatly” and noted: “Character development is equally uneven.” However, the contributor suggested that readers would appreciate “Alone in Boca Raton’s moral high ground.”
Residents of the small town of Dyersburg, TN search for a fellow citizen in Tennessee Tremors. Troy Mattingly is hired by Perfect Spring, a Belgian company, to manage a new construction project in town. When he goes missing, the town’s residents determine to find him. Among those searching are Jack Beasley, a policeman, Barbara Cummings, leader of the Chamber of Commerce, and some of Troy’s coworkers. Alex Follon, who works for Perfect Spring, also searches for Troy. Jill Allen, critic on the Foreword Reviews website, commented: “Any thrills or mystery remain hidden under confusing dialogue about corporate minutiae and unattributed italicized thoughts. Inadequate foreshadowing also occurs.” However, Allen concluded: “Anyone who enjoys traditional private eye stories and tales in which Big Business gets cut down to size may like Tennessee Tremors.”
Harvest of War
Harvest of War: A Flemish Novel is set in Ramsel, Belgium in 1944. Nazis have occupied the town, and the townspeople have reacted to the occupation in different ways. Some have become Nazi sympathizers, while others have joined the resistance. The book’s protagonist is Bruno Van Dam, the local doctor. When a plane flown by two British pilots crashes nearby, Bruno takes them in and treats their wounds. He goes on to hide them, knowing the risk he is taking. Bruno also hides a five-year-old Jewish orphan. Another storyline follows Sophie Verlinden, another Ramsel resident, who flirts with Franz Ehrlich, a Nazi, in hopes of being given money.
Karen Rigby, critic in Clarion Reviews, suggested: “Harvest of War is a worthwhile exploration of the period. Belgian perpetrators and victims are both rendered with care; questions of belonging on the right or wrong side of wartime struggles are shaded with complexity.” Rigby added: “This is a clear-sighted reminder of life’s shifting tides.” A writer on the Kirkus Reviews website remarked: “The fast-paced plot delivers plenty of deftly rendered drama and suspense.” The writer added: “This is an affecting depiction of both simple heroism and complex moral ambiguity.” The same writer also called the volume “a historically fascinating dramatization of wartime tyranny in Belgium.” A contributor to the Blue Ink Review website commented: “Harvest of War is a compelling read. It vividly portrays the growing distrust among its diverse and believable characters.” The contributor continued: “The novel explores human endurance in wartime, and well-crafted descriptions … hit home.”
Cloning Galinda
In Cloning Galinda, Smolders tells the story of Mary Jenkins, a citizen of the small town of Noredge, OH. Mary stands up to oil executives and other townspeople when a company plans to use hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” to extract oil from the ground under Noredge. The company planning to do the fracking is Doornaert Oil and Gas. Mary’s boyfriend, Joe Bertolo, has been hauling contaminated water for Doornaert. He worries that Mary’s protests will put his well-paid job in jeopardy. However, Joe begins developing health problems, and Mary believes his sickness is from his handling of the contaminated water. When the town’s tap water becomes questionable, the townspeople finally join Mary in protesting the fracking.
A contributor to Kirkus Reviews remarked: “The writing is lucid, if lacking in literary style.” The same contributor concluded: “Smolders keeps the plot marching at a brisk pace, and Mary emerges as a memorable heroine. An intelligent novelization of a hot environmental issue.” “Fracking’s effects on the town are convincingly written in powerful, verbal language,” asserted Gary Henry in Clarion Reviews. Henry added: “Cloning Galinda is an entertaining tale that opens a fascinating window into the controversial subject of hydraulic fracking, and treats it in the compelling and dramatic fashion it deserves.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Clarion Reviews, January 19, 2016, Karen Rigby, review of Harvest of War; A Flemish Novel; August 1, 2017, Gary Henry, review of Cloning Galinda.
Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2017, review of Cloning Galinda.
ONLINE
Blue Ink Review, https://www.blueinkreview.com/ (January 1, 2015), review of Alone in Boca Raton; (January 1, 2016), review of Harvest of War.
Foreword Reviews Online, https://www.forewordreviews.com/ (May 1, 2014), Jill Allen, review of Tennessee Tremors; (January 19, 2016), Karen Rigby, review of Harvest of War; (August 1, 2017), Gary Henry, review of Cloning Galinda.
Jan Smolders Website, http://jsmolders.com/ (May 8, 2018).
Kirkus Reviews Online, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/ (January 19, 2016), review of Harvest of War.
Jan Smolders, author of Viral Games and The Convenient Fund, carries Belgian and United States passports and has lived in Belgium, Japan, Singapore and the United States. Jan has headed industrial corporations worldwide and led Clinton Foundation initiatives in Latin America. He currently lives in Florida.
Jan Smolders, author of Tennessee Tremors, Viral Games, The Bridge of Whispers, The Convenient Fund, Ripping the Veil, Ripping the Veil, Alone in Boca Raton and Harvest of War, carries Belgian and USA passports, has lived in Belgium, Japan and Singapore, and resides in Florida. He has run industrial corporations worldwide and led Clinton Foundation initiatives in Latin-America. His cultural and social experiences are the canvas on which he paints his novels.
QUOTED: "The writing is lucid, if lacking in literary style."
"Smolders keeps the plot marching at a brisk pace, and Mary emerges as a memorable heroine. An intelligent novelization of a hot environmental issue."
Smolders, Jan: CLONING GALINDA
Kirkus Reviews. (Sept. 15, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Smolders, Jan CLONING GALINDA iUniverse (Indie Fiction) $20.99 5, 15 ISBN: 978-1-5320-2194-7
A woman tries to protect her family and her small Midwestern city from the dangerous impact of oil drilling in this drama. When the Doornaert Oil and Gas Company proposes to drill for oil in Noredge, Ohio, many of the city's inhabitants are thrilled at the prospect of the economic benefits. Mary Jenkins, however, worries that its method--hydraulic fracturing or "fracking"--will despoil the city's ecosystem, endangering residents' lives. To further complicate matters, her longtime boyfriend, Joe Bertolo, works for Doornaert, driving a truck that hauls "dirty water," a toxic brew of salty liquid and various chemicals. Joe earns a good paycheck and is reluctant to stand up against his employer, but Mary notices a steep decline in his health, likely due to exposure to dangerous gases. Soon, Noredge undergoes the kind of transformation Mary was anxious about; her street turns into a messy swarm of dust and fumes while the downtown area becomes overcrowded with bustling activity, including crime. Then, Joe is badly hurt in an accident while driving his truck, causing a troublesome spill of dirty water in a nearby town, inviting a slew of negative media attention to the company. Mike Doyle--the new regional manager and Joe's boss since Doornaert was bought by a larger company--deceitfully lays the blame for the crash on Joe's faulty driving. Meanwhile, Noredge residents notice a terrible smell emanating from their water; fearing that their health is threatened, they begin to protest. Mary assumes a leadership role that propels her into the thick of the city's politics. Smolders (Alone in Boca Raton, 2014, etc.) is deeply knowledgeable about the environmental dangers attached to fracking as well as its economic and political allure. (Early on, a Doornaert lawyer tells a group of Noredge citizens: "That shale, the 'source rock,' sits a few thousand feet under your city. Its oil and gas have been waiting there for us for more than four hundred million years. Haven't we tested their patience long enough?") In addition, the author sensitively dramatizes the issues without any heavy-handed ideological posturing. The writing is lucid, if lacking in literary style, but the story becomes overly congested with competing subplots, including some unnecessary romantic complications. Overall, though, Smolders keeps the plot marching at a brisk pace, and Mary emerges as a memorable heroine. An intelligent novelization of a hot environmental issue.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Smolders, Jan: CLONING GALINDA." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Sept. 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A504217478/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=430bba54. Accessed 18 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A504217478
QUOTED: "Fracking's effects on the town are convincingly written in powerful, verbal language."
"Cloning Galinda is an entertaining tale that opens a fascinating window into the controversial subject of hydraulic fracking, and treats it in the compelling and dramatic fashion it deserves."
Cloning Galinda
Gary Henry
Clarion Reviews. (Aug. 1, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 ForeWord
https://www.forewordmagazine.net/clarion/reviews.aspx
Full Text:
Jan Smolders; CLONING GALINDA; iUniverse (Fiction: Mystery) 20.99 ISBN: 9781532021947
Byline: Gary Henry
Cloning Galinda is an entertaining tale that opens a fascinating window into the controversial subject of hydraulic fracking.
One good Midwestern woman stands up against the overwhelming financial and political might of a corrupt fracking operation in Jan Smolders's David-and-Goliath tale, Cloning Galinda.
Mary Jenkins is a mother, common-law wife, and fifth-grade teacher. She has her doubts when hydraulic-fracturing agents seduce her small Ohio town with talk of easy money for its residents. The project boss's secret agenda threatens Mary, her family, and her hometown, hurling her into a battle she's ill-equipped to fight, let alone win.
Mary is the most nuanced, sympathetic, and believable character in the story. She is a woman who is fiercely protective of her home and family, even as she is overworked and overburdened with doubts and concerns: "Her worries about all the complications and financial headaches grew. Who would help her? Friends? The school? Supren? Supren's HR department? Doyle? How about disability payments?"
Other characters, including Mike Doyle, the project boss, have less dimension. Doyle is a stock bad guy, cheating on his wife with the wife of a subordinate, taking money under the table, and much worse. This relatively simplistic characterization puts the novel into melodramatic territory at times.
Plotting is tight, and the pacing is rapid. The narrative keeps developments unfolding, though for Mary they're mostly unpleasant -- from her husband's hospitalization, to losing her job, to her kids being bullied at school over her anti-fracking stance.
Crisp, realistic dialogue contributes to the novel's fast pace, breaking up and balancing the exposition, which is limited. It advances the action and effectively shows the characters' -- especially Mary's -- volatile emotional reactions in the face of the juggernaut bearing down on the town.
The novel shines in its vivid depictions and clear explanations of both the environmental disruption and harm caused by hydraulic fracking, and the advanced, even amazing, technology that is used. There is even a hat-tip to the positives of fracking -- low gasoline and heating oil prices not dependent on foreign producers -- but along with the mystery of what the bad guy is up to, the novel carries a strong, somewhat one-sided anti-fracking subtext.
Fracking's effects on the town are convincingly written in powerful, verbal language -- from the nonstop noise, light and dust, to contamination of the water supply.
Cloning Galinda is an entertaining tale that opens a fascinating window into the controversial subject of hydraulic fracking, and treats it in the compelling and dramatic fashion it deserves.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Henry, Gary. "Cloning Galinda." Clarion Reviews, 1 Aug. 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A500024115/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=09cf63e0. Accessed 18 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A500024115
QUOTED: "Harvest of War is a worthwhile exploration of the period. Belgian perpetrators and victims are both rendered with care; questions of belonging on the right or wrong side of wartime struggles are shaded with complexity."
"This is a clear-sighted reminder of life's shifting tides."
Harvest of War; A Flemish Novel
Karen Rigby
Clarion Reviews. (Jan. 19, 2016):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 ForeWord
https://www.forewordmagazine.net/clarion/reviews.aspx
Full Text:
Jan Smolders; HARVEST OF WAR; iUniverse (Fiction: Historical) 19.95 ISBN: 9781491778920
Byline: Karen Rigby
Despite the bleak context and occasional brutality, there's seldom a sense that the people have been spiritually defeated in this high-stakes WWII novel.
Harvest of War by Jan Smolders portrays a World War II community where neighbors are plagued with doubts about one another, even as those who refuse to despair perform quiet acts of heroism. A suspenseful plot highlights the tension between moral justice and doing whatever it takes, however questionable, to survive.
It is 1944, and Ramsel, Belgium, is occupied by Germans. Divided between Nazi collaborators and members of the resistance, the once close-knit community is rife with rumors. Bruno Van Dam -- a brusque, resourceful doctor -- is the central figure in this tale of risking one's own safety for the sake of the more vulnerable. When circumstances force him to hide a Jewish orphan and two British pilots, the high-stakes problems of transporting them play against the ongoing fear of capture. After Van Dam's own son, Eric, is rounded up by the Germans, Van Dam's efforts to free him by approaching the enemy roil the town.
An emphasis on action leaves limited room for growth. Despite their ordeals, several characters seem largely unchanged over the course of the book. Characters also tend toward familiar types: an indispensable, faithful housekeeper; an honorable, elderly man who suffers no fools; and a widow whose beauty and independent ways fuel gossip.
Still, Harvest of War is a worthwhile exploration of the period. Belgian perpetrators and victims are both rendered with care; questions of belonging on the right or wrong side of wartime struggles are shaded with complexity. Levelheaded members of the resistance, members on the fringe who give in to violence, uninvolved parties who show their true natures once liberation occurs, ordinary citizens, and unlikely heroes reveal the many ways people contend with extreme pressure.
Especially apt scenes highlight disparities between appearances and reality. A woman whose home is seized by Germans assumes the role of lover and informer to a German officer, yet she remains on the side of the locals, despite few of them realizing it. Van Dam's longtime friend, Ivan Beckers, is similarly misunderstood. The pain of Eric Van Dam's absence remains abstract, since prior to his capture his character remained in the background as an example of the town's youth. A tendency to explain passing thoughts in italics is distracting.
Harvest of War shines for its unexpected optimism. Despite the bleak context and occasional brutality, there's seldom a sense that the people of Ramsel have been spiritually defeated. Through deep-seated resolve, and for all of their differences, they band together. This is a clear-sighted reminder of life's shifting tides, and of the necessity of acting with selflessness.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Rigby, Karen. "Harvest of War; A Flemish Novel." Clarion Reviews, 19 Jan. 2016. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A441225686/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=d8d87084. Accessed 18 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A441225686
QUOTED: "The fast-paced plot delivers plenty of deftly rendered drama and suspense."
"This is an affecting depiction of both simple heroism and complex moral ambiguity."
"a historically fascinating dramatization of wartime tyranny in Belgium."
HARVEST OF WAR
by Jan Smolders
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KIRKUS REVIEW
A World War II novel examines a small Flemish town coping with the Nazi occupation.
In 1944, the Flemish town Ramsel in Belgium has been occupied by the Germans for four years. Bruno Van Dam, the community’s doctor and pharmacist, is compelled to assume the role of savior as well. Two British pilots abandon a crashing plane, and seek refuge in Ramsel, breaking into Ivan Beckers’ cabin. Van Dam treats both of them (one is seriously wounded), and becomes, at great personal risk, the primary architect of their concealment from the Nazis avidly hunting them. Then Van Dam receives a request from Sister Cornelia to hide a 5-year-old boy who lives at a local school; she fears that the repugnant Nazi administration will discover he’s a Jew. The doctor, inexhaustibly compassionate, lets the boy stay in his basement until safe transportation can be arranged. Meanwhile, Sophie Verlinden, forcibly expelled from her home by the Nazis, schemes to extract rent money from Franz Ehrlich, the local head of the GFP, a feared arm of the Nazi Party. She delicately tries to entice him with the possibility of romantic dalliance, and even flirts with the idea of giving him information about the local population, risking being labeled a “Zwette,” the term for a traitorous collaborator. In his novel, Smolders (Alone in Boca Raton, 2014, etc.) displays a remarkable knowledge of both Flemish life and the volatile politics generated by the Nazi occupation, not considered unwelcome by all. In fact, the Flemish National Union, once solidly anti-Nazi, reverses its official position and endorses the invasion, prompting Van Dam to quit its ranks. While the dialogue can be a touch earnest, even bordering on cloying, the fast-paced plot delivers plenty of deftly rendered drama and suspense. Smolders ably portrays a town’s residents exhausted from the war, but also hopeful—especially following the Allied invasion of Normandy—that they will soon be delivered from imprisonment in their own homes. This is an affecting depiction of both simple heroism and complex moral ambiguity.
A historically fascinating dramatization of wartime tyranny in Belgium.
Pub Date: Nov. 30th, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4917-7892-0
Page count: 326pp
Publisher: iUniverse
Program: Kirkus Indie
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19th, 2016
QUOTED: "Harvest of War is a compelling read. It vividly portrays the growing distrust among its diverse and believable characters."
"The novel explores human endurance in wartime, and well-crafted descriptions ... hit home."
Harvest of War
Jan Smolders
Publisher: iUniverse Pages: 316 Price: (paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781491778920
Reviewed: January, 2016
Author Website: Visit »
Harvest of War: A Flemish Novel is a fast-paced WWII historical novel that dramatically illustrates how war can transform ordinary citizens into heroes and villains alike.
The novel, set in Ramsel, a German-occupied town 30 miles southeast of Antwerp, Belgium, begins in 1944. Rationing, censorship, clashes between resistance groups and collaborators, abductions, and the increasing volatility of the Nazi’s secret police have taken their toll on the townsfolk. More than anyone, protagonist Dr. Bruno Van Dam, a widower and father of teenagers Eric and Monique, exists in the middle of the conflict. He grants medical care to both friend and foe and is Ramsel’s chief problem solver.
An onslaught of events obliges Van Dam to maneuver between both sides to seek justice and freedom. His decisions to hide an orphaned Jewish boy, treat and protect two British pilots injured in a plane crash, and negotiate with Franz Ehrlich, leader of the secret police, for information when Eric is kidnapped force him to carry “an explosive load … of dangerous secrets”—the revelation of which would end the doctor’s life.
Despite the use of contemporary American vocabulary such as “dude,” “thrown me under the bus,” and “retard” and a conclusion that feels rushed, Harvest of War is a compelling read. It vividly portrays the growing distrust among its diverse and believable characters as word spreads that liberation is near and reprisals for treason are imminent. Its setting allows for an uncommon World War II story, and its references to the friction between Belgium’s Flemish and Francophone communities is a historical perspective readers seldom encounter.
Ultimately, the novel explores human endurance in wartime, and well-crafted descriptions such as the following hit home: “[Frau Bauer’s] long breaks within sentences told her story better than her whispered comments about life under Hitler. Pale, graying, and slow, she was a picture of the destitution that war had wrought.”
Also available as an ebook.
QUOTED: "the novel’s climax, in which the malefactors confess too readily and the Osorioses’ conflict resolves too neatly."
"Character development is equally uneven."
"Alone in Boca Raton’s moral high ground."
Alone in Boca Raton
Jan Smolders
Publisher: iUniverse Pages: 298 Price: (paperback) $18.95 ISBN: 9781491748275
Reviewed: January, 2015
Author Website: Visit »
Jan Smolders’ fifth novel, Alone in Boca Raton, is a story about a Mexican family’s desire to reside in the United States and the perils they endure as they pursue this endeavor. Smolders combines elements from suspense and romance genres to weave his narrative.
Mario Osorio is a Mexican textile engineer living in Boca Raton, Florida, on an eleven-month visa. He meets Erin Brown, a widowed owner of a garment factory who offers to sponsor Mario’s green card if he agrees to manage the factory and collaborate on new designs with her daughter, Jenny. After accepting Erin’s proposal, Mario learns that his family has crossed illegally from Mexico into the U.S. Fearful that Erin will withdraw her sponsorship, Mario keeps their whereabouts secret until he discovers his brother has been kidnapped and immigration officials have detained his mother and sister.
Erin enlists help from her lawyer, Tony. But soon Mario and Jenny, who are on the cusp of romance, uncover shady business dealings between Tony and Jenny’s jealous boyfriend, and Mario investigates their involvement in the kidnapping.
The novel’s climax, in which the malefactors confess too readily and the Osorioses’ conflict resolves too neatly, rushes the book’s conclusion and undercuts a satisfying ending. Additionally, Smolders abandons intriguing subplots—such as Erin’s fraudulent business practices and the immigration status of her factory workers—and relies on the epilogue to wrap up his characters’ state of affairs.
Character development is equally uneven, especially when considering Erin’s personality and ambiguous interest in Mario. When Erin first meets Mario, for example, she’s flirtatious and sexual, but by book’s end, she’s motherly and diffident.
The book’s strength lies in Smolders’ portrait of Mario as a man torn between the responsibility he feels for his family and the resentment he harbors against them for complicating his opportunity to make a life in America. There’s honesty in this dichotomy, and readers will likely appreciate Alone in Boca Raton’s moral high ground.
Also available as an ebook.
QUOTED: "Any thrills or mystery remain hidden under confusing dialogue about corporate minutiae and unattributed italicized thoughts. Inadequate foreshadowing also occurs."
"Anyone who enjoys traditional private eye stories and tales in which Big Business gets cut down to size may like Tennessee Tremors."
TENNESSEE TREMORS
Jan Smolders
iUniverse (Jan 23, 2014)
Softcover $17.95 (270pp)
978-1-4917-2055-4
Clarion Rating: 2 out of 5
Companies and corporate misdeeds become the main characters in this novel of mystery and scandal.
These days, many people almost expect corporations to cut corners and fudge data, but, thankfully, it still remains shocking when a business becomes involved in a missing persons case. Jan Smolders, who has experience running construction ventures, brings his knowledge to the table in Tennessee Tremors.
When Troy Mattingly of Dyersburg, Tennessee, disappears after becoming construction manager for a project sponsored by a Belgian outfit called Perfect Spring, everyone in the small town gets involved in the case: Troy’s colleagues, Chamber of Commerce head Barbara Cummings, police detective Jack Beasley, and even a shady staffer from Perfect Spring named Alex Follon.
Smolders goes behind the scenes of the construction project, examining the greed and manipulation shrouding the truth. His omniscient narrator should help explain the major players’ motivations; however, the only relatable character is Alex. And Alex, with his arrogance and objectification of Barbara and Janice, is odious, until a realization partway through the book puts him on the road to redemption, though he remains slimy. While he thinks he is suave and subtle, other characters, male and female, constantly think of him as a “creep.”
Sometimes Barbara and Janice use revealing outfits or poses as a ploy to get information from Alex, even as they bemoan his behavior. For Janice, using her feminine wiles makes sense at the outset, because Smolders paints her as a bored housewife who longs for male attention when Troy is away on business. Barbara, however, represents a professional career woman with her sights on the mayor’s office. It is hard to believe that such a smart woman cannot come up with a better plan than showing skin to extract information from Alex. Janice never stops simpering, but her mental fortitude waxes and wanes as the plot requires. With lines like Troy’s lover Susan thinking, “I must wear something perky for my hunk,” the women seem more suited to 1950 than 2014.
Jack’s highly unprofessional detective work also smacks of a bygone era: yelling at suspects, including scared children, without lawyers present; having Barbara question people for him; and using Janice’s sorrow to extort a confession. He comes across as a bumbling Barney Fife instead of the good guy . Little consistent information is known about Troy, and certainly not enough for people to care about him as a vanished person. Generally, one knows for certain what cars the characters drive and how they take their drinks—but less about their personalities.
Any thrills or mystery remain hidden under confusing dialogue about corporate minutiae and unattributed italicized thoughts. Inadequate foreshadowing also occurs, as at least three characters pop out at the last minute, and a romance is thrown in. Ultimately, companies and corporate misdeeds become the actual main characters in this novel. Anyone who enjoys traditional private eye stories and tales in which Big Business gets cut down to size may like Tennessee Tremors.
Reviewed by Jill Allen
May 1, 2014
CLONING GALINDA
Jan Smolders
iUniverse (May 15, 2017)
Softcover $20.99 (378pp)
978-1-5320-2194-7
Clarion Rating: 4 out of 5
Cloning Galinda is an entertaining tale that opens a fascinating window into the controversial subject of hydraulic fracking.
One good Midwestern woman stands up against the overwhelming financial and political might of a corrupt fracking operation in Jan Smolders’s David-and-Goliath tale, Cloning Galinda.
Mary Jenkins is a mother, common-law wife, and fifth-grade teacher. She has her doubts when hydraulic-fracturing agents seduce her small Ohio town with talk of easy money for its residents. The project boss’s secret agenda threatens Mary, her family, and her hometown, hurling her into a battle she’s ill-equipped to fight, let alone win.
Mary is the most nuanced, sympathetic, and believable character in the story. She is a woman who is fiercely protective of her home and family, even as she is overworked and overburdened with doubts and concerns: “Her worries about all the complications and financial headaches grew. Who would help her? Friends? The school? Supren? Supren’s HR department? Doyle? How about disability payments?”
Other characters, including Mike Doyle, the project boss, have less dimension. Doyle is a stock bad guy, cheating on his wife with the wife of a subordinate, taking money under the table, and much worse. This relatively simplistic characterization puts the novel into melodramatic territory at times.
Plotting is tight, and the pacing is rapid. The narrative keeps developments unfolding, though for Mary they’re mostly unpleasant—from her husband’s hospitalization, to losing her job, to her kids being bullied at school over her anti-fracking stance.
Crisp, realistic dialogue contributes to the novel’s fast pace, breaking up and balancing the exposition, which is limited. It advances the action and effectively shows the characters’—especially Mary’s—volatile emotional reactions in the face of the juggernaut bearing down on the town.
The novel shines in its vivid depictions and clear explanations of both the environmental disruption and harm caused by hydraulic fracking, and the advanced, even amazing, technology that is used. There is even a hat-tip to the positives of fracking—low gasoline and heating oil prices not dependent on foreign producers—but along with the mystery of what the bad guy is up to, the novel carries a strong, somewhat one-sided anti-fracking subtext.
Fracking’s effects on the town are convincingly written in powerful, verbal language—from the nonstop noise, light and dust, to contamination of the water supply.
Cloning Galinda is an entertaining tale that opens a fascinating window into the controversial subject of hydraulic fracking, and treats it in the compelling and dramatic fashion it deserves.
Reviewed by Gary Henry
August 1, 2017
HARVEST OF WAR
A FLEMISH NOVEL
Jan Smolders
iUniverse (Nov 30, 2015)
Softcover $19.95 (326pp)
978-1-4917-7892-0
Clarion Rating: 4 out of 5
Despite the bleak context and occasional brutality, there’s seldom a sense that the people have been spiritually defeated in this high-stakes WWII novel.
Harvest of War by Jan Smolders portrays a World War II community where neighbors are plagued with doubts about one another, even as those who refuse to despair perform quiet acts of heroism. A suspenseful plot highlights the tension between moral justice and doing whatever it takes, however questionable, to survive.
It is 1944, and Ramsel, Belgium, is occupied by Germans. Divided between Nazi collaborators and members of the resistance, the once close-knit community is rife with rumors. Bruno Van Dam—a brusque, resourceful doctor—is the central figure in this tale of risking one’s own safety for the sake of the more vulnerable. When circumstances force him to hide a Jewish orphan and two British pilots, the high-stakes problems of transporting them play against the ongoing fear of capture. After Van Dam’s own son, Eric, is rounded up by the Germans, Van Dam’s efforts to free him by approaching the enemy roil the town.
An emphasis on action leaves limited room for growth. Despite their ordeals, several characters seem largely unchanged over the course of the book. Characters also tend toward familiar types: an indispensable, faithful housekeeper; an honorable, elderly man who suffers no fools; and a widow whose beauty and independent ways fuel gossip.
Still, Harvest of War is a worthwhile exploration of the period. Belgian perpetrators and victims are both rendered with care; questions of belonging on the right or wrong side of wartime struggles are shaded with complexity. Levelheaded members of the resistance, members on the fringe who give in to violence, uninvolved parties who show their true natures once liberation occurs, ordinary citizens, and unlikely heroes reveal the many ways people contend with extreme pressure.
Especially apt scenes highlight disparities between appearances and reality. A woman whose home is seized by Germans assumes the role of lover and informer to a German officer, yet she remains on the side of the locals, despite few of them realizing it. Van Dam’s longtime friend, Ivan Beckers, is similarly misunderstood. The pain of Eric Van Dam’s absence remains abstract, since prior to his capture his character remained in the background as an example of the town’s youth. A tendency to explain passing thoughts in italics is distracting.
Harvest of War shines for its unexpected optimism. Despite the bleak context and occasional brutality, there’s seldom a sense that the people of Ramsel have been spiritually defeated. Through deep-seated resolve, and for all of their differences, they band together. This is a clear-sighted reminder of life’s shifting tides, and of the necessity of acting with selflessness.
Reviewed by Karen Rigby
January 19, 2016