Deuce's Wild [Paperback]

Review: Deuce's Wild, Clyde W. Ford
by M. Stan Reaves


Clyde W. Ford has crafted a sly, fast-paced, intelligent novel that combines the best of the mystery and detective genres. Most notably, Ford carves out his own territory within the broader category of urban literature, pulling off a daredevil balancing act that combines professional African-American lifestyles with Middle Eastern politics and the internecine hip-hop wars. He pulls this off smoothly and convincingly, spinning a yarn that propels you along to its multi-layered, fascinating conclusion.


Ford's "Deuce's Wild" is a rarity among contemporary urban literature. It's not mainly about romance, sex, or mysticism. Well, sort of. While the main character, John Shannon, is still in love with his ex wife and feels that old black magic about half-way through the story, romance is clearly a minor player here. And to his credit, Shannon, an investigator for a shadowy arm of the Department of Homeland Security, has the self-discipline not to try to bed every attractive woman who comes his way. Indeed, he wades through a night club filled with lovelies and comments on the bevy of body parts thrown his way like a librarian cataloging books. As for mysticism, well, it turns out to be central to the mystery that drives the plot, but not your Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings variety of spells and weirdness. Rather, the mysticism here is of the centuries-old brand practiced by the Sufi, more religion and spirituality than hokus-pokus. Ford, a psychologist and professor, manages to educate as he entertains.


Ford makes great use of New York City and its environs, situating you convincingly in locations that give the story a cinematic feeling. The story is filled with action that is fresh, convincing, and often surprising, well handled by a hero in Shannon who is sympathetic and honorably flawed.


Still, the story is not without its pitfalls. Ford refuses any but the briefest of character descriptions, giving the story a lightweight almost cartoonish feeling. It's almost impossible to care about characters with scant background and physical descriptions, leaving the reader somewhat removed from the story. We don't even find out what our main character looks like until page 72 and find out his height twenty pages later, an annoying avoidance that forced me to completely re-envision the character, something I did not appreciate doing.


Given the wealth of absorbing material that Ford cleverly inserts into the story, I was flabbergasted when he referred to Senegal and Iran as Arab countries. First, Senegal is a West African country with Africans making up more than 97% of its population. Iran's majority is Persian not Arabs, who make up less than 5% of the population. I suspect he meant to refer to these countries as Islamic, as both of them overwhelming are, but that error should have been caught by any good editor because it tended to make Ford look like he didn't know what he was talking about.


Amazingly, Shannon completely fails to foresee and prevent a murder that every reader from grade school upwards could see coming. This almost brought the story to a screeching halt for me as it made Shannon practically look like an idiot and was wholly inconsistent with the care and precision of his actions everywhere else in the story. It's an astonishing gaff that I can only attribute again to poor editing as anyone looking at the story should have demanded he rewrite that scene.


Nonetheless, "Deuce's Wild" has a convincing, compelling hero, and is filled with fascinating discourse on religion and faith, masterful transitions in a plot that never lets go, and a cleverly rendered critique of American foreign policy and governmental shenanigans as fresh as today's headlines.

Reviewed by
Stan Reeves
Mahogany Media Review

This is my second Clyde Jones novel. His technical skills (psychology, mythology) enrichens his novels. This is a good tale with unexpected turns. His characters are strong and interesting-- well developed and very credible. The plot is written with Sufism as a background; so you can learn about this Muslim sect and do so with an enjoyable story.

It's a page turner that is fun and someone educational. A good read.

› Go to Amazon U.S. to see both reviews  3.5 out of 5 stars