Alone at the Gate

by Florian Schneider

Julian Keller, at the ripe old age of twenty-three, never managed to excel at anything. He’d been defiant as a child, rebellious as a teen, mischievous as a young adult—not to mention good-for-absolutely-f**king-nothing, as his alcoholic mother never tired of reminding him throughout his early years—and is now permanently broke while working as a small-time photo journalist.After stumbling on an unexpected opportunity amidst the Nicaraguan civil war in 1978, Julian rises to become one of America’s most influential smugglers of that new and harmless plaything for the hip and wealthy called ‘cocaine,’ which he proceeds to fly in from Bolivia. However, buying private planes and LA beachfront mansions with the kind of ease with which he’d not so long ago bought chewing gum turns stale once he begins to learn about the inner city crises that his ultimately not-so-harmless merchandise unleashes all over the United States. Meanwhile, LAPD detective Eric Welsh—whose mother, an English immigrant and self-made millionaire, was murdered in Los Angeles when he was ten—emerges from his bleak subsistence as a homicidal vigilante hunting violent sex offenders when he takes in Sonia, a deeply traumatized twelve-year-old Nicaraguan refugee. While Eric rediscovers life beyond the ambit of vicarious revenge, he bonds with Sonia, watches her grow up and thrive, and is in awe of the indomitable strength with which she won’t allow to be defined by what she’s suffered through. When he finds out that the most prolific smuggler of cocaine he’s ever come across resides right up the street from him in Malibu, Eric gets entangled in a cobweb of red tape as dubious U.S. State Department operatives get in his way.

Genres: Fiction

Kindle Edition

First published March 20, 2020

About the author

Born and raised in Germany, Florian Schneider is a former small-time photo journalist turned marginally less small-time advertising photographer. He lives in Southern California with his unbelievably impressive Mexican-American wife.

His latest novel, The Auctioneers, was featured on Reedsy's Best New Book list with a five star-review in December 2020. In January 2021, Manybooks(dot)net featured The Auctioneers as Best Literary Fiction book of the month. In January 2022, his second novel, The Sins of Others, was named Best Literary Fiction book of the month by Manybooks(dot)net.

Reviews

[Celia Buell (semi hiatus) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not going to lie, this book was infuriating and confusing for the most part. There are many things I can't get behind in terms of any novel that paints a trigger-happy police and a big-time drug smuggler as the heroes of any story, even if either character is doing things for the right reasons.

At first, I thought Eric, the trigger-happy LA cop, would be the POV I had the hardest time following, but after Sonia enters the picture, his story seems to have a lot more of a purpose than that of Julian, the journalist-turned-drug-smuggler. Eric at least has a story to follow, and he does grow through this, but Julian shifts between a completely boring and static character to an asshole throughout most of the book. Neither character leaves me longing for more after I've finished the book.

However, this story does approach issues that are not often talked about, especially in terms of the harms of the international illegal drug trade. In this regard, I wish we had gotten to see more of Julian's perspective in terms of what he was actually seeing and experiencing, because I do have a lot of respect for Latin American countries and would like to see more about how the way we take from these countries hurts them. In terms of this novel, I wish this was where the focus had been.

Alone at the Gate also had a similar trend that I've been noticing in that its ending was so much more confusing than it needed to be. When the lives of Eric and Julian finally converge, there's no big action scene. Julian never seems to fully realize the wrongness of his life, and Eric's change doesn't happen much on the page either. It's just a sudden scene switch to "thirty years later..."

It probably didn't help that I finished this novel on a weekend where I'm a little muddled by some illness that might be COVID, and where I've eaten close to nothing all day, at least in terms of the end confusion. Come to think of it, it probably also doesn't help that I'm writing my review in this state, and I hope this is still coherent for anyone who chooses to read it. I am not sure why I decided it was time for a more serious read amidst all the cozy mystery and fairytale retelling comfort reads I've been doing, but this did work to numb my mind. I do not plan on rereading it. It wasn't badly written, just featured characters I couldn't appreciate and a plot I found lacking for my own tastes.

Disclaimer: Free in exchange for an honest review, via Goodreads Giveaways. Thank you to Florian Schneider for listing. All opinions are my own.

[Vigilant Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Title – Alone at the Gate
Author – Florian Schneider
Genre – Crime Fiction
Word Count - 78,000
Rating – Four stars out of Five
No. 41 - 2020
Posted 11/7/2020

My Impressions: Highly emotional story of three badly damaged people coming together.

Main Characters:
Eric Welsh – Decorated homicide detective, thirty eight years old.
Julian Keller – Immature young man who discovers the only thing he excelled at was drug smuggling.
Sonia Gutierrez – Kidnapped at age twelve and abused by a pedophile.

The story opens with Det. Welsh following a lead to a serial murderer. Instead of arresting the scum, he murder’s him. Eric has a high incidence of on the job shootings as he delivers his brand of justice. He suffers emotional issues from his childhood; he was forced to watch as his wealthy mother was tortured and then murdered.
Julian Keller at age twenty three is an immature, unsuccessful news correspondent going to hotspots in South America searching for the big story that will land him a job with a major news organization. Instead he stumbles into a large sum of money and buys four kilos of cocaine and smuggles it into the U.S. His luck holds and he becomes a major transporter of drugs from South America. Eventually the CIA forces him to use his operation to transfer arms to factions the US government supports in the civil wars there. Finally Julian is forced to accept he is facilitating the torture, mutilation, and murder of hundreds of thousands of people. He is wealthy but paranoid and goes into seclusion for many years.
Sonia Gutierrez was damaged goods at an early age. To escape the pervert who kidnaped and abused her for months, she disemboweled him with a knife. She and her mother are hounded by news reporters until they move in with Det. Welsh who found her shortly after she killed her abuser. She and Eric bond in an unlikely relationship. She wants to be close to him but at the same time holds him away with smart mouthed sarcasm.

All the main characters carry the scars of past relationships gone awry. They are emotional cripples with each coping in their own way.

The editing and sentence structure are subpar and desperately in need of professional guidance.
Details and research indicate at least a passing knowledge of the many locations mentioned.
The plot is a step above the usual drug cartel yarn with detailed insights into the main character’s emotions.
The writing style is complex and takes the reader inside the main character’s heads.

The story was easy to follow until the end when the time jumped thirty years and scenes got out of sequence. It ended leaving too many loose ends and the reader left to choose the ending.
In spite of the flaws, I did enjoy the story and recommend it for readers who enjoy a deeply insightful story.

Vigilant Reader Book Reviews.

[Patti Lane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to follow

Not the type of story line I usually read. It was difficult to keep reading at some points. I wouldn't be compelled to follow this author.