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The Burden of Truth
As a serving police officer, Los Angeles Times bestselling author Neal Griffin saw how family ties, loyalty to friends, and their own ambitions could lead young men to make choices that got them hurt, killed, or imprisoned. He explores this complex web of relationships and pressures in The Burden of Truth.
In a small city in southern California, 18 year-old Omar Ortega is about to graduate high school. For years, he's danced on the fringes of gang life, trying desperately to stay out of the cross-hairs. Once Omar joins the Army, his salary, plus his meager savings, will get his mother and siblings out of the barrio, where they've lived since his father was deported.
One night, everything changes. Newly released from prison, Chunks, the gang's shot-caller, has plans for Omar. That boy, Chunks thinks, needs to be jumped in.
By dawn, Omar will be labeled a cop-killer. Law-and-order advocates and community organizers will battle over Omar's fate in the court of public opinion while the criminal justice system grips him in its teeth.
One night can destroy a man and all who depend on him.
That he's innocent does not matter.
In a small city in southern California, 18 year-old Omar Ortega is about to graduate high school. For years, he's danced on the fringes of gang life, trying desperately to stay out of the cross-hairs. Once Omar joins the Army, his salary, plus his meager savings, will get his mother and siblings out of the barrio, where they've lived since his father was deported.
One night, everything changes. Newly released from prison, Chunks, the gang's shot-caller, has plans for Omar. That boy, Chunks thinks, needs to be jumped in.
By dawn, Omar will be labeled a cop-killer. Law-and-order advocates and community organizers will battle over Omar's fate in the court of public opinion while the criminal justice system grips him in its teeth.
One night can destroy a man and all who depend on him.
That he's innocent does not matter.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published July 14, 2020
17 people are currently reading
51 people want to read
About the author
Neal Griffin
12 books31 followersNeal Griffin is a twenty-five year veteran of law enforcement who grew up in the kind of town he writes about. He often speaks about law enforcement issues and police ethics to civilians and fellow cops. Griffin has participated in special training at FBI headquarters. Currently serving in a department in southern California, Griffin is married and has four children. His first novel was Benefit of the Doubt.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 1, 2020
“The Burden of Truth” is the story of a tragedy that could never be undone. The book opens with a frantic police raid; “Sheriff’s department! Get on the ground!” and the chapter finishes with the pronouncement “You’re that cop killer from last night.” What follows is the story of just what brought them all to that intense encounter as well as the nightmare for all involved that is still ahead.
Griffin structures the narrative from the point of view of the various participants so readers know what others do not, and the picture is not idyllic from any point of view. Chapters designate the time, date, and location so readers can follow what happened “before” and what happens “after.”
The dramatic events unfold in San Diego County, a seaside paradise and yet a slightly less smoggy but equally overcrowded, traffic-clogged version of Los Angeles, her rich cousin to the north. Readers get to know all the participants well, their hopes, dream, concerns, and daily struggles. These are lives with promise and lives without hope. These are people who manipulate others and people who look out for others. All these lives are irreparably altered by circumstances beyond their control.
“The Burden of Truth” is a compelling story of all that might have been, were it not for…
It is tragic and starkly real. It embodies what could be and what is. I received a review copy of “The Burden of Truth” from Neal Griffin and Forge Books, and I found it grippingly realistic. Every chapter was an emotional roller coaster. I could not put it down.
Griffin structures the narrative from the point of view of the various participants so readers know what others do not, and the picture is not idyllic from any point of view. Chapters designate the time, date, and location so readers can follow what happened “before” and what happens “after.”
The dramatic events unfold in San Diego County, a seaside paradise and yet a slightly less smoggy but equally overcrowded, traffic-clogged version of Los Angeles, her rich cousin to the north. Readers get to know all the participants well, their hopes, dream, concerns, and daily struggles. These are lives with promise and lives without hope. These are people who manipulate others and people who look out for others. All these lives are irreparably altered by circumstances beyond their control.
“The Burden of Truth” is a compelling story of all that might have been, were it not for…
It is tragic and starkly real. It embodies what could be and what is. I received a review copy of “The Burden of Truth” from Neal Griffin and Forge Books, and I found it grippingly realistic. Every chapter was an emotional roller coaster. I could not put it down.
August 16, 2020
I’ve read all 4 of Neal Griffin’s books. He is a great writer. If you enjoy crime novels you’ll love his books. His characters are wonderfully human - heroes who make mistakes.
This novel set in Vista,CA,just down the road from my home, is the first book I’ve ever read that’s setting is a place so familiar. And the people and story line is so familiar.
With everything going on right now in our country this story is particularly timely. It gives the point of view from law enforcement and a marginalized immigrant community.
Read Omar’s story. It will touch your heart and hopefully empower you to do all you can you make changes in the community you live in.
This novel set in Vista,CA,just down the road from my home, is the first book I’ve ever read that’s setting is a place so familiar. And the people and story line is so familiar.
With everything going on right now in our country this story is particularly timely. It gives the point of view from law enforcement and a marginalized immigrant community.
Read Omar’s story. It will touch your heart and hopefully empower you to do all you can you make changes in the community you live in.
August 2, 2020
This was an extremely difficult book to read. It focuses on the policemen and policewomen working in a desert town in California and the impoverished immigrants and gang members living in the same community. The harsh reality facing young people and poor families is often something that more established residents never face and seldom understand. As 18-year-old Omar explains to detectives, “Everybody I know has a story like that, maybe not exactly, but something like it. That’s why we run. That’s why we all run. If you don’t get it? If that isn’t good enough for you? I guess I can’t do anything about that, can I?” Later a female detective states, “Believe it or not, sometimes we arrest the wrong people.”
The author Neal Griffin states that his wife, Olga Diaz “...has committed her life to providing equal opportunity to the marginalized young people of our country, who are so often overlooked.” She was his inspiration for writing this book.
I wish more people could see both sides of the polarizing issues of undocumented immigrants and gangs.
The author Neal Griffin states that his wife, Olga Diaz “...has committed her life to providing equal opportunity to the marginalized young people of our country, who are so often overlooked.” She was his inspiration for writing this book.
I wish more people could see both sides of the polarizing issues of undocumented immigrants and gangs.
August 10, 2020
Neal Griffin's career in law enforcement spanned almost three decades, and he saw the best and worst on both sides of the blue line. His Newberg trilogy is highly prized and critically acclaimed. THE BURDEN OF TRUTH is set halfway across the country from Newberg, Wisconsin, in Vista, California. Nonetheless, it has some subtle ties to the series that play out over the course of a gritty, tragic and memorable story.
Griffin toys a bit with traditional linear narrative here. The prologue drops readers into an explosive vignette, in which an arrest is quickly effectuated in a cramped apartment occupied by what remains of a family of illegal immigrants. Omar Ortega, an 18-year-old high school senior, is the target. The remainder of the book is divided into two parts labeled “Before” and “After.”
It is “Before” that is arguably the most important section, as we learn of the events --- both part of the public record and otherwise --- leading up to Omar’s arrest. The young man makes plans to improve his life and elevate the circumstances of his family. However, he faces a number of obstacles, most of them from the low-level street-corner thugs who populate Omar’s neighborhood. The head of the San Diego County Sheriff gang interdiction squad is somehow convinced that Omar is gang-affiliated, which doesn’t help matters. Travis Jackson, a relatively new addition to the sheriff’s department, is somewhere in the middle, sometimes wishing he had never left his small police department in Wisconsin but wanting to prove himself in the dangerous environment of San Diego County.
On a fateful night, Omar puts himself between a very dangerous street gang and his younger brother and sister. When a traffic stop goes wrong in the worst possible way, it appears that he is at fault, leading to the arrest that is prefigured at the beginning of the book. It is in the “After” section where things seem to be at their most hopeless, particularly because readers know much more than the justice system and law enforcement do. Omar acquires some allies who may be able to help him, but he also finds himself facing new enemies in jail. Meanwhile, some members of the sheriff’s department seek out more evidence, while others suffer from confirmation bias. Help is ultimately coming for Omar, but it may be too little and too late.
There is plenty of sorrow to be doled out on all sides in THE BURDEN OF TRUTH without the luxury of easy answers. You will be thinking about this deeply layered book and recommending it to others, just as I have been doing.
Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Griffin toys a bit with traditional linear narrative here. The prologue drops readers into an explosive vignette, in which an arrest is quickly effectuated in a cramped apartment occupied by what remains of a family of illegal immigrants. Omar Ortega, an 18-year-old high school senior, is the target. The remainder of the book is divided into two parts labeled “Before” and “After.”
It is “Before” that is arguably the most important section, as we learn of the events --- both part of the public record and otherwise --- leading up to Omar’s arrest. The young man makes plans to improve his life and elevate the circumstances of his family. However, he faces a number of obstacles, most of them from the low-level street-corner thugs who populate Omar’s neighborhood. The head of the San Diego County Sheriff gang interdiction squad is somehow convinced that Omar is gang-affiliated, which doesn’t help matters. Travis Jackson, a relatively new addition to the sheriff’s department, is somewhere in the middle, sometimes wishing he had never left his small police department in Wisconsin but wanting to prove himself in the dangerous environment of San Diego County.
On a fateful night, Omar puts himself between a very dangerous street gang and his younger brother and sister. When a traffic stop goes wrong in the worst possible way, it appears that he is at fault, leading to the arrest that is prefigured at the beginning of the book. It is in the “After” section where things seem to be at their most hopeless, particularly because readers know much more than the justice system and law enforcement do. Omar acquires some allies who may be able to help him, but he also finds himself facing new enemies in jail. Meanwhile, some members of the sheriff’s department seek out more evidence, while others suffer from confirmation bias. Help is ultimately coming for Omar, but it may be too little and too late.
There is plenty of sorrow to be doled out on all sides in THE BURDEN OF TRUTH without the luxury of easy answers. You will be thinking about this deeply layered book and recommending it to others, just as I have been doing.
Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
July 8, 2020
How did everything go so wrong? Omar has held it together for his family-especially his little sister Sofia and brother Hector. He's got plans to get out of their neighborhood by joining the Army. Then, though, he's derailed when he's forced to join Chunks, a gang leader in a car- and then someone fires a gun, killing a police officer. Omar is arrested. Griffin does a very good job of portraying Omar's panic and despair and gives an equally fine portrayal of Travis Jackson, a law enforcement officer working the case. Jackson realizes something's wrong but can he help Omar? No spoilers from me but know that there are no easy answers, making this a sadly realistic tale. Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC. I'd not read Griffin before but I'm going to look for him again.
September 13, 2020
Oh my gosh I absolutely loved this book. It is the story of Omar Ortega, an 18-year old in Vista, CA who is the valedictorian of his high school and the head of his family following the deportation of his father. His mother works as a housecleaner and he works extra jobs trying to keep himself and his siblings out of the gang culture that surrounds them. One night he is taken by the gang members on a ride around the city which he agrees to do to protect his sister and by the end of the night he is falsely accursed of killing a policeman. Though he is innocent, his arrest ends his family's dreams of moving to a better part of the city and his of joining the Army as proving his innocence in a culture that questions the veracity and candor of Mexican boys/men who live in the barrio proves difficult. Griffin is a skilled story teller, a retired police officer who wife is Latina and an elected official in a north San Diego County town. He writes what he knows and this is an outstanding story.
June 7, 2020
This is the story of Omar Ortega who is trying to do better for his family. Unfortunately because of where he lives he is expected to jump into the Eastsiders gang which he has been avoiding. He wants to join the Army and protect his mom, sister Sofia and brother Hector. Things go wrong so quickly for Omar when he tried to get his brother away from the gang and winds up getting himself mixed up in a detective’s murder. Omar is quickly blamed for this and instead of the burden of proof Omar is trying to prove that he is telling the truth.
December 15, 2021
Well written to evoke emotions....strong emotions that have you questioning how many officers out there have wrongfully arrested and charged the innocent with crimes they could never and did not commit. I have read books that have had me rooting for a character and this book did just that. I wanted Omar to win. I wanted him to escape the barrio. I wanted him to graduate and give his valedictorian speech to his peers. I wanted him to succeed and prove the naysayers wrong! This book is a warning to all....never be so quick to judge someone and prosecute them before their innocence is proven. The injustice is this book is only a small portion of what beautiful brown/black and/or the poor experience. I wish there could be a follow up book about the karma catching all involved in this sorrowful injustice.
November 4, 2020
This is an extremely well written book and very tragic story. It’s also one of the best books I’ve read this year.
My intent now is to read the author’s other books.
My intent now is to read the author’s other books.
February 13, 2021
“Omar’s story as I have told it is not a stretch. It is, in fact, unsettling in its authenticity”
That quote, from Neal Griffin’s author’s note at the end of the book, sums it up for me. As someone who was a police officer, I felt this story did a superb job of creating realistic characters who grapple with the good and no so good choices that have to be made.
That quote, from Neal Griffin’s author’s note at the end of the book, sums it up for me. As someone who was a police officer, I felt this story did a superb job of creating realistic characters who grapple with the good and no so good choices that have to be made.
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March 19, 2022 Many people write from experience, bringing more real-ism to the story. That puts Neal Griffin in very good stead, as he was in the law enforcement world for more than three decades.
In his fifth fiction effort, Griffin puts her law enforcement expertise to perfect use, bringing stark realism to the story.
An eighteen year old high school student Omar Ortega, has done his best to stay on the path of the straight and narrow. There are gangs around him, but he resists temptation to join them. He wants to join the army to get some money to assist his family. They are in dire straits financially.
His father was deported years earlier. Omar feels obligated to help. But one night, those dreams turn into a nightmare when he is coerced into getting in the car with Chunks Guitierrez and his buddies. During a routine traffic stop, a gun is fired, an officer murdered. Omar is targeted as the shooter, dragged from his home, and judged immediately as guilty.
The book is divided into Before and After. As the story unravels, we find the truth behind that fateful night. No matter how hard Omar pleads his innocence, there is a sense of pre-judgment, not giving someone the benefit of the doubt. You sense the frustration and desperation Omar feels. There are some who do believe him, while others think they have their man, and nothing else matters.
The realism of the story mirrors real life. Some officers show heart and soul, while others are ready to accept a scapegoat. THE BURDEN OF TRUTH is a book that you will want to discuss with friends because of the manner in which it handles true to life conflict and consequence.
In his fifth fiction effort, Griffin puts her law enforcement expertise to perfect use, bringing stark realism to the story.
An eighteen year old high school student Omar Ortega, has done his best to stay on the path of the straight and narrow. There are gangs around him, but he resists temptation to join them. He wants to join the army to get some money to assist his family. They are in dire straits financially.
His father was deported years earlier. Omar feels obligated to help. But one night, those dreams turn into a nightmare when he is coerced into getting in the car with Chunks Guitierrez and his buddies. During a routine traffic stop, a gun is fired, an officer murdered. Omar is targeted as the shooter, dragged from his home, and judged immediately as guilty.
The book is divided into Before and After. As the story unravels, we find the truth behind that fateful night. No matter how hard Omar pleads his innocence, there is a sense of pre-judgment, not giving someone the benefit of the doubt. You sense the frustration and desperation Omar feels. There are some who do believe him, while others think they have their man, and nothing else matters.
The realism of the story mirrors real life. Some officers show heart and soul, while others are ready to accept a scapegoat. THE BURDEN OF TRUTH is a book that you will want to discuss with friends because of the manner in which it handles true to life conflict and consequence.
October 20, 2020
This is the story of Omar Ortega a young smart kid who is trying to do better for his family. Living in a poor neighborhood males like himself are expected to jump into the neighborhood gang which he has been avoiding,. He wants to join the Army and to provide and protect his family. Things go wrong so quickly for Omar....
The read is great a page turner at times the story is common place to most people who grew up near or below the poverty line of any race why these writers/Reviewers seem to think white skin? must have grew up in those posh houses in the burbs those mini mansions with but of course a black maid and butler.. Joe Biden thinking "even poor kids can be as well off as white kids"...…
The read is great a page turner at times the story is common place to most people who grew up near or below the poverty line of any race why these writers/Reviewers seem to think white skin? must have grew up in those posh houses in the burbs those mini mansions with but of course a black maid and butler.. Joe Biden thinking "even poor kids can be as well off as white kids"...…
December 18, 2022
The Burden of Truth is one of the most emotionally charged and tragic tales of crime fiction I've read in a long time. This is Neal Griffin's fourth book and for me, it's his best. Street gangs, life in the barrio, socioeconomic stereotypes. Omar Ortega, an eighteen year old high school student, is trying desperately not to fall into the gang life. As the oldest of three kids, minus a father, he is his siblings protector and role model. But can he control all of the forces that want to bring him down? Can he escape his environment? Is it possible? This one is going to sit with me for a long time. Highly recommended!
June 12, 2022
Very well written. I enjoyed it a lot. Strong characters. Good storyline. Omar is a teen on the cusp of graduating and then off to the Army. Chunks Gutierrez and Eboy Cisernos turn his life upside down. Deputies Peralta and Jackson want to see the killer of their fellow officer brought to justice. When all aspects of the crime points to Omar, the TRUTH is unfolded by Omar and his family. Tu 4 entertaining me Dale Griffin.
August 18, 2024
Didn’t like the ending
Clearly the writer is gifted. He was able to make me bond with the characters. Great development of the characters. It was extremely well written. My only complaint is that I hated the ending.
Clearly the writer is gifted. He was able to make me bond with the characters. Great development of the characters. It was extremely well written. My only complaint is that I hated the ending.
March 31, 2021
An very interesting novel. After you finish it, be sure to read the additional notes to further understand the Burden of Truth.
April 14, 2023
What a great book! It was like watching a movie , rooting for Omar , rooting for the police to finally find the truth. Neal Griffin has lived the life and found a way to tell the story. Sad at times but feeling lucky to not having to live the life of Omar and those like him.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews