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John Shannon's son J. J. is a huge fan of hip-hop artist Yousef al-Salaam, formerly Deuce F., who recently converted to Sufism, a mystical order of Islam. The popular musician also happens to be on a terrorist watch list. When al-Salaam is shot outside a Manhattan nightclub, Shannon agrees to investigate the murder as a favor to J. J. Was al-Salaam entangled in a feud with East Coast gangsta rapper T-Mo? Or was he caught on the wrong side of Islam extremism?

The NYPD has given up on the case and, after a close call with T-Mo's thugs, so has Shannon. But something--curiosity, ego, anger?--drives him to penetrate the murky mystery surrounding al-Salaam, whose search for enlightenment reminds Shannon of his own quest for personal growth.

312 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2006

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About the author

Clyde W. Ford

20 books31 followers
Clyde W. Ford is a software engineer, a chiropractor, and a psychotherapist. He’s also the award-winning author of twelve works of fiction and non-fiction, whose most recent book, THINK BLACK: A Memoir will be published in September 2019 by Amistad/HarperCollins.

Clyde W. Ford earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Mathematics from Wesleyan University in 1971, then worked as a systems engineer for IBM. In 1977, he returned to school, enrolling at Western States University in Portland, Oregon, where he completed his Doctorate in Chiropractic. Later, he undertook post-doctoral training in psychotherapy at the Synthesis Education Foundation of Massachusetts, under the direction of Steven Schatz, and the Psychosynthesis Institute of New York. Ford was in private practice as a chiropractor and psychotherapist, first in Richmond, Virginia, and later in Bellingham, Washington.

At sixteen, Ford traveled to West Africa in the wake of Martin Luther King’s assassination, attempting to come to terms with the tragedy. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported, “The young man traveled alone that summer to the Elmina slave portal, on the continent’s west coast, and heard voices in a mystical experience that permanently marked him.” Looking back on the event more than 20 years later, Ford told the Plain Dealer, “The meaning of my own life is based in the meaning of those who have gone before. The ancestors are there, still informing, still influencing us.”

BODY-MIND HEALING
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Clyde wrote about body-mind healing; in the mid-1990s he concentrated on the healing of racial wounds; and in 2000, he wrote about mythology, and how myths could heal psychic wounds. Besides exploring healing issues in books and on the lecture circuit, he has conducted seminars and written numerous articles for Massage Magazine, Massage Therapy Journal, and Chiropractic Economics. In 1991 East West Magazine recognized Ford’s work in somatic therapy as one of the 20 trends reshaping society. Linda Elliot and Mark Mayell in East West Magazine described Ford as “an ‘engineer’ who’s building a bridge across the chasm that separates practitioners who focus only on body structures and those who concentrate specifically on the psyche.” From 1992 to 1996 Ford regularly taught somatic psychology at the Institut fur Angewandte Kinesiologie in Freiburg, Germany.

In 1989 Ford wrote his first book, Where Healing Waters Meet, about his many years of experience working with the healing of emotional wounds through touch and movement therapy, rather than talk therapy. That was followed in 1993 by Compassionate Touch, a book which amplified these themes and documented Ford’s work with adult survivors of sexual abuse, mainly women.

RACIAL HEALING
The riots and racial divisiveness in Los Angeles following the Rodney King verdict in 1992 left Ford feeling frustrated. After speaking to a number of friends who shared his frustration, he decided to write a book about social justice and racial healing. “When we’re dealing with an issue like racism,” Ford told Karen Abbott in the Rocky Mountain News, “So many people feel it’s a daunting issue and that they can’t do anything. A certain paralysis sets in. But anybody and everybody can make a difference.” While Ford remained optimistic, he also admitted that the roots of racial discord run deep. “It’s really not just African American’s place to deal with that,” he told Linda Richards in January Magazine. “We have in our history our own reckoning with that process. But the entire society needs to reckon with that.”

In 1994 Ford completed We Can All Get Along: 50 Steps You Can Take to Help End Racism. “Racism is a social issue,” Ford told Cynthia M. Hodnett in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “It is important to look beneath the surface to find out what the issues are that need to be addressed.” Ford realized that many people were

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Profile Image for Jim.
495 reviews20 followers
June 28, 2015
John Shannon is a former NYPD officer now working for the anti-terrorist Office of Municipal Security. He is assigned an interview with a rapper formerly known as Deuce F who after his conversion to the Sufi sect of Islam is now called Yousef al-Salaam. Shannon doesn’t think the rapper is a threat and tells his boss as much, but the day after the interview al-Salaam is killed. The official version is that the murder was just another example of the violent world rappers are a part of, but that doesn’t feel right to John. He decides to investigate on his own and finds plenty of dangerous people on every side and a few new friends along the way.

This novel revolves around the protagonist’s unexpected identification with the victim. Shannon begins to see in Yousef al-Salaam, a man like himself seeking his best path through life. He eventually realizes that he needs to bring the guilty to justice both for himself and al-Salaam. DEUCE’S WILD is a fast paced thriller that kept me wanting to see what happens next. Ford has penned a worthwhile read for any fan of the genre.
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