Perfect for readers who appreciate a novel female protagonist, an “everywoman” confronted with an overwhelming moral dilemma and crushing physical danger Luz Concepcion returns to Guatemala to murder Martin Benavides, the man who destroyed her family. Benavides, who rose from insurgent fighter to president, controls a major drug network. Richard Clement became Luz’s resettlement officer when she … resettlement officer when she was evacuated to the U.S. He now works for the CIA, which has its own reasons for eliminating Benavides. Richard’s team persuades Luz to pursue a job as nanny to Benavides’ grandson, Cesar, a lonely child with an absentee playboy father.
The Guatemala contact for her mission is Evan McManus, an expat painter who pursues Luz, hoping to persuade her to model for him—and more. Luz initially spurns his advances, but her first terrifying encounter with Martin Benavides propels her into his arms.
Complicating matters, Luz conceals from all sides her clandestine contact with her surviving cousin, Antonio Torres, a guerrilla leader fighting the government propped up by the Benavides and their drug money.
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“Toward the Light” by Bonar Spring is the tale of an uncommon hired gun. Maria Luz Concepción is returning to Guatemala, her childhood home, but she is there to do more than scatter her mother’s ashes; she is there to kill a man.
Readers find that Concepción is an assassin but also a paradox in both personality and behavior. She is going to kill her target with a smile on her face, and yet she bargains with God for her safety. She is ruthless, a professional trained to kill, and at the same time just an amateur with a personal vendetta.
The story details everyday events and normal people but in reality, things are far from ordinary. At the start, the pace is slow and deliberate, setting up the personalities and the everyday situations. Readers become familiar with the neighborhoods and markets in Guatemala City, but behind it all is Concepción, arranging things, setting things, preparing for her personal crusade. Then, when all is in place, the action is fast and frantic with a surprising twist.
“Toward the Light” is an action thriller with international intrigue with varied and complex characters, but it is also a personal story. There is a hint of romance, but focus is Concepción and her journey. I received a review copy of “Toward the Light” from Bonar Spring and Oceanview Publishing. It is a quest for personal justice with a startling ending.
Plenty of plot twists and an action-packed story to keep readers hooked. I thought the characters a bit flat, but the story itself makes up for that. Interestingly, the family of the “bad guys” seems more real than the two main characters. This is a good book to read on the airplane–very engrossing.
A riveting tale of international revenge! This gripping thriller — where everyone has ulterior motives and no one is who they seem — is cinematic and fast-paced, and its non-stop suspense will have you turning pages as fast as you can. A terrific debut from a super-talented author.
An acutely observed, beautifully written thriller that gives real moral weight to its characters and their choices. Spring revives the format with an insider’s view of a complex and tragic political history.
Great pacing and beautifully written! This is much more than an action thriller of foreign intrigue. It reminds me of some of Martin Cruz Smith’s stories with its balance of character development and action. The writer really makes you feel like you’re in the markets and neighborhoods of Guatemala City, but the real action is in the central character’s head.
It all seemed so sensible at the beginning. Returning to her native Guatemala, Luz Concepcion has the opportunity to right the wrong that has overshadowed her life – but from her first hour on the ground, things happen that threaten her mission and even change her most basic understanding of it. In this well-paced and beautifully written debut novel, Bonnar Spring gives us a thriller with heart, a twisted journey through darkness toward the light.
An excellent book; don’t let loyalty or hatred blind you to truth! Five star. Highly recommended!
I received a free electronic ARC of this modern novel on January 8, 2020, from Netgalley, Bonnar Spring, and Oceanview Publishing. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. I am pleased to recommend Bonnar Spring to friends and family. Bonnar Spring writes a compelling tale with lots of twists and turns and word pictures that take you there.
Luz Conception, a political alien in the U.S. for about 20 years, has had an awful year. Her beloved mother had a slow, lingering death, and her last wish is to have her ashes buried in the resting place of her cherished husband, a victim of the revolution. Then Lux is diagnosed with ALS and has to give up her job as a nanny at a daycare. Knowing her time is very limited, she resolves to honor her mother’s wish – and with the aid and encouragement of Richard Clement, re-settlement agent and later friend who helped her and her mother adapt to life in the U.S., Luz decided to return to Guatemala inter her mothers ashes in her father’s grave, and kill the man who murdered her father and many of the citizens of their mountain community. To make what would be most likely her last year count for something important to her and her family.
Richard is able to get her a position as the afternoon nanny to the grandson of Martin Benavides, the man Luz believes killed her father. Martin was the rebel leader and later President of Guatemala until his retirement a year or so back. Under the fictitious name of Luz Arada, fake passport and papers in hand, Luz flies into Guatemala City and flows into the rhythm of the Benavides household, which is very seriously defended, both with many levels of locked sections of the household, and several wandering armed guards. Cesar Benevides is a sweet kid, six or eight years old, isolated in this household and tutored by a Priest who comes into the Benevides stronghold several mornings a week. Cesar’s older sister was sent to Spain a year ago to a boarding school after an attempted kidnapping from her school, but Cesar is too young to be sent so far away.
Luz has a small apartment set up by Richard, and Richard’s nephew, Evan McManus, is her local contact. Evan quickly and becomes a friend and intimate to Luz. Her hands are full – and unbeknownst to Evan and Richard, she has a Guatemala City contact with her mother’s sister Juana in the food market in town. Her mother had always told her that to contact family back home, go to the orange seller in the GC market. And through Juana, she has contact with her cousin Antonio Torres, who, just a teen, was responsible for getting her and her mother on an evacuation helicopter on the night her father died so long ago. Antonio is now the outlaw commander of the Frente Popular de Liberacion, leader of the civil war, a war still being fought in her country. Even Evan should not know about her contact with Tonio – which is hard to insure after Tonio is injured in the City and works his way to her apartment, where she is able to patch him up and keep him hidden until his mother can arrange to have him moved.
Martin is now a frail old man with a wheel-chair-bound wife and they obviously love their grandson Cesar. Their son Robert, father of Cesar, is a man without empathy or conscience. Luz knows personally that Bobby Benevides is a bully and danger to women in general, living the grand life of the privileged. Most of Cesar’s problems rest at the hands of his father, neglectful and finding no time for his son while showering him with expensive gifts. Just as she learns to adore Cesar, so do Martin and wife Dominga lose their devil’s horns as she gets to know them personally. Luz is having a hard time separating the truth from fiction, and just who ARE the bad guys in Guatemala? The incumbent government? The Revolutionaries? The cartels? Seems like the casting list is changing almost daily. And then Richard arrives in Guatemala City. Luz is having trouble keeping all the balls she is juggling in motion. Is Richard going to be helpful? Or just another personality to keep in motion?
Intelligent and gripping, rich with fluid prose, a vibrant sense of place, heart-stopping action and compelling characters who will resonate long after the last page, this story has it all. I didn’t want it to end.
This is a big and broad tale of rare scope and ambition, populated with conflicted characters for whom nothing comes easy, which inches Toward the Light just close enough to the dark underbelly of human depravity. A sterling debut!
Toward the Light is a high-stakes thriller set in the mean streets of Guatemala. Family secrets drive this impressive debut novel, a tale of revenge and redemption, to an exciting finish.
Richly atmospheric and artfully spiked with twists and surprises, Toward the Light takes you on a thrilling ride with memorable characters and a breathless finish.
I love everything about Toward the Light by Bonnar Spring. From the first sentence “On a breezy autumn afternoon, Maria Luz Concepcion returned to Guatemala to kill a man” to the stunning and twisted conclusion. All is not as it seems in Luz’s world, growing up as a Guatemalan immigrant in the United States, and ultimately presented with an overwhelming moral dilemma. Luz is not a “superwoman” but rather an “everywoman” who despite crushing physical danger faces the evil that is trying to control her life. Toward the Light is aptly titled to highlight Luz’s extraordinary journey toward truth and light.
Highly recommended for readers who appreciate strong female protagonists.