Even Climate Change Can’t Stop Love and Murder
Author: A.E.S. O’Neill
As Ginger and Alby cross the United States to relocate to their new witness protection home in Arizona, their search for love is marred by violent interludes with insurrectionists, white supremacists, and jihadists. But those are not enough antagonists for this author! The setting is an antagonist as well with the fury of climate chaos — storms beyond measure that bring about death and destruction.
Similar to the first book in this series, A.E.S. O’Neill writes an action-packed novel that takes place in a short time span, allowing a lot to happen in a single day.
Chapter 1, the hook for the novel, is written from the perspective of Ginger. The reader reads her thoughts on running away, on the Handlers managing Alby’s witness protection, and on Alby – as Ginger continues to analyze him out of the corner of her eye. This is particularly notable for a male author to successfully write from a female perspective, and to do so in the novel’s hook.
Written in the third person, this book seamlessly jumps to various characters. Jagger, the man hunting down Alby but currently too injured to complete the job, reminisces on his horrible upbringing. Ginger frequently thinks about what she is running away from, an overbearing mother who controls her acting career as well as much of her life. Alby has minimal thoughts about the present. He thinks about Ginger’s quirks and his need for a drink, but he does not think much about the past or the future – a characteristic emphasizing that Alby has been worn down by the past and doesn’t see himself as having much of a future.
Even Climate Change Can’t Stop Love and Murder, Volume 2: Paying the Price is the second novel of this romance thriller series and offers a uniquely American vision of love and murder, trauma and healing. However, this book could easily be read as a standalone novel. O’Neill provides the necessary information about the relationship between Ginger and Alby, for example, to make it so, including that Ginger is running away with a man she hardly knows who is on the run.
Traveling with Alby, Ginger shares information about her life with him, but not the dark secrets of her childhood, which explain so much of her strong, determined character. All the threads of the old life and new culminate at Tuzigoot National Monument, where Ginger and Alby once again face death.
Volume 1 opens in a high-action scene, whereas volume 2 opens with character development of Ginger and her relationship with Alby. While the high-impact scenes could have been filled with more emotion and intensity, the author clearly develops scenes and characters, and his overall story telling is outstanding. This is an excellent read, and one we greatly recommend.
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