“Dodgers” by Bill Beverly is unlike anything I’ve ever read before. It is a crime-thriller about gang life in Los Angeles. Literally, kids, 17, 16, 15, and 13-year-old kids in a gang selling drugs, protecting territory, and even murdering people for their cousin, or brother, or father, as a way of life, getting by on the streets.
This book is not for everyone. But what I appreciated about this book the most was the depth and layers of street life and this mentality of these kids, acting like adults, grown men following orders, dodging the police, others out to get them, and running for their lives. The character development by Mr. Beverly is exceptional. Despite what they are up to, you are really invested in these characters, their evolution as they go through different situations, or face impossible choices, their loyalty to the gang or their self-preservation instincts.
After reading this novel, I was left wanting more, wanting to read something else just like this. It whets your appetite for a good story with superb character development. I have read “crime novels” before, but nothing quite like this.
Poems for Warriors 