The Aftermath

The Aftermath assumed published, copyright and written by Mark Stephen 0’Neal.

The first chapter is a quick ‘eye-opener’ for anyone introduced to the protagonist for the first time. He had not been ready for his night to end with Naomi, the new but decidedly complete love of his life, so after taking his time getting home, he had received an angry text from Nicole, his sister, with whom he spoke for 30 minutes about getting married and additionally about another sister, Jasmine and plans for her graduation party. Also greatly disturbing to Nicole was the fact that he had not informed her about their dad’s kidnapping, a situation that he had been able to dissolve quite rapidly by discovering that the entire situation had been engineered by a close friend whom he had given money to establish a business. He contacted Detective Stanton, a friend of his father who moved rapidly to arrest two of the perpetrators and the third is killed by an accident during a high-speed chase. He then stops on the way home for some necessary shopping and encounters a female employee who asks if he is Brock Lane? He confirms that he is and her next question is whether he prefers the Name Wolves or Trojans? From this point the tale continues to evolve and the reader learns that the protagonist is a young man who left college early to enter the professional basketball league draft. He was one of the fortunate, and within a very short time was able to distinguish himself as a rapidly rising star. As the plot progresses, the reader is introduced to more of family, present and former loves, other acquaintances, friends and enemies as several threats arise affecting Brock and/or members of his immediate and extended family.

Discussion: An interesting vignette of a relatively short period in the life of a rapidly rising basketball star on the cusp of earning huge amounts of money. Brock is an individual who has made mistakes earlier in life, as have members of a family who have been similarly involved to a greater or lesser extent. All now seemingly are functioning relatively normally except for some carry over of a degree of psychological burdens. Characters, family and the rest, are empathetically portrayed and apparently from the number of stories in the series, this book should be enjoyed by any number of readers.

5* As discussed in the review.