The author of the popular books Document and Cloudbreak returns with a diverse new collection of fiction, perspectives, memoir and verse. The wide array of subject matter cuts a broad path through public service, the criminal justice system, military service, sports, travel, outdoor pursuits, national security, self-awareness, and – appropriately enough – the craft of writing. The third and final … final installment of a trilogy, Crossroads is another bold effort by an up-and-coming contemporary writer that covers a deep variety of current issues and is an engrossing read that will draw you in until you finish the final page. “Glen Hines is a writer who defies easy labeling and cannot be pigeonholed; he’s a former military and federal prosecutor and judge who asks serious and discomfiting questions about the priorities of our criminal justice system and our law enforcement agencies, and why people with little to no experience are put in charge of such important missions. He’s a former Division One football player, member of a championship team, and son of an NFL All-Pro who asks very pointed questions about why we as a society pay lip service to the head-trauma crisis in football while we still continue to watch every weekend in the fall, much like the Romans once did the gladiator games. He is a Marine veteran of Iraq and the Global War on Terror who asks why American society is so incredibly out of touch with its veterans and why it makes so little an effort to meet our veterans at least half way. Some of the protagonists in his stories are the “bad” guys, or maybe that’s just what he wants us to think. He is a defender of Constitutional rights who – although he has spent some significant time in a combat zone – questions why we in American society are so completely obsessed with guns, especially when the overwhelming majority of us have never had to employ them against another human being. This man has a significant set of life experiences relevant to modern times and current issues. Read what he has to say and consider it. You might not agree with everything he says, but your own positions and arguments will be better informed.” – Barnes and Noble reviewer
more
I’ve been a fan of the author for a long time. I started following him years ago after his notable Sports Illustrated article on the concussion crisis in football. I have all three of his books, Document, Cloudbreak, and Crossroads. Crossroads is the best of the three. This book is a lot like the first two, especially Cloudbreak. He is a great short fiction story writer. For example, there are 15 short fiction stories in Crossroads, covering a variety of plot lines. “The Department” deals with a man who has been a government operative of some sort for many years and is just trying to get on with his life when he is approached and recruited back into the fold by a shadowy figure the author describes as looking like “the older guy in the Brooks Brothers ads.” “Riding the Storm Out,” is so deliberately murky it is unclear whether the protagonist is a war veteran with PTSD or some separatist seeking to live off the grid. “The Road Lawyer” is a look at what it must be like to be a defense lawyer representing those who find themselves in the cross hairs of the federal government and to be better than everyone else in the courtroom, and still possibly lose. “The Legend of Ricky Reifel” tells us all what it is like to play big time college football under the barrage of 90,000 screaming, hostile fans. And what appears to be an excerpt from another work in progress, “The Sheriff of St. Thomas” shows us what it is like to work as a federal prosecutor in an American territory that is neither a state nor a country. Indeed, Hines operates out on the fringes in his writing, and he explores issues, challenges, confronts, and introduces us to worlds few of us are familiar with. I highly recommend this outstanding collection.
The third and final installment of a trilogy, Crossroads is another bold effort by an up-and-coming contemporary writer that covers a deep variety of current issues and is an engrossing read that will draw you in until you finish the final page. As one reviewer of his second book Cloudbreak notes, Hines is a writer who defies easy labeling and cannot be pigeonholed; he’s a former military and federal prosecutor and judge who asks some very pointed questions about the priorities of our criminal justice system and our law enforcement agencies, and why people with little to no experience are put in charge of such important missions. Why is federal government law enforcement driven by numbers instead of justice, and why do young political appointees with no experience get appointed to head up this effort? Hines also continues his battle with the sport of football, most notably with the NFL, who he views as nothing more than a 21st-century version of Big Tobacco with the way it handles the head trauma crisis. He also points the light on fans who ignore how the game wreaks havoc with lives and families; he views this affliction of fans paying lip-service to these issues as a uniquely-American addiction. He continues his campaign to get more Americans to reach out to their military veterans in a tangible way, rather than waving flags and putting bumper stickers on their vehicles, or posting about their support on social media. And for the first time, the reader gets to learn what the craft of serious writing is all about. Whether it’s a fiction story and you wonder if the writer actually lived it, a dispatch about the joys of catching a wave, an account of what it’s like to step into a batter’s box or kick a field goal in Division 1, a journal entry from a Marine stuck in a tent city in the Kuwaiti desert, what it’s like to be a defense attorney defending someone against the massive power of the federal government, or being a combat deployment veteran of the new wars of the young 21st century and redeploying home to readjust to the citizens around you – most of whom you feel completely out of place with – Crossroads is a powerful work. You will not be able to put it down.