“Laws of Solomon” by Eriq La Salle, c.2026, Poisoned Pen Press, $18.99, 304 pages
Finally, after lots of mental effort on your part and the passage of time, you’ve left the shameful parts of your past behind. At least, that’s what you tell yourself. What’s done is done and history cannot be undone. It’s over. You try not to think about last month, last year or a decade ago. Why does it even matter?
In the new novel, “Laws of Solomon,” author Eriq La Salle captures why some memories are just too painful to hold.
The monsters that come early in the night as main character Solomon Nangobi sleeps are easy to overcome. It’s the late-night demons – the spirits of the people Solomon killed when he was a child soldier in Uganda and, later, a fixer in New York as an adult – that steal his sleep. Their ghosts still call out to him with urgent voices, though he has left that life behind.
Now he spends his days working the soil in gardens near Malibu, California. He loves the quiet life.
But he has kept his guns. And he’s glad he did.
When Solomon recognizes two hitmen stalking a well-dressed man, woman and child through the gardens he tends, he cannot walk away. He stops the gangsters with bullets, but the adults and their bodyguards are already dead. The child, an 8-year-old boy named Gaby, is safe but unable to explain the situation to Solomon.
Still, it is now clear that Solomon has become Gaby’s guardian and the crime boss who sent the hitmen wants them dead, too.
When Solomon was Gaby’s age he had witnessed the murder of his parents, the destruction of his homeland and the atrocities committed by dictator Idi Amin’s soldiers. He was hardened by his experiences, learning to kill, understanding as a small boy that revenge was often necessary and knowing that blood would be shed.
But Gaby is just an innocent child. Solomon reaches out to his contacts to get the boy to safety, but the contacts of a marked man are also dangerous.
“Laws of Solomon” will take even the most jaded reader on a wild ride. This thrilling work of historical fiction delivers an authentic perspective on the past. And La Salle makes it impossible to dislike Solomon, a man who has lost nearly everything dear to him and has faith in almost nothing. But we never really get to know him, although we do meet and get to know those who support his quest to find safety for the boy, which will keep your heart racing.
Partially set in 1970s Uganda, violence is a central feature of this story, so few people live. If you can handle it, you will be riveted till you’ve read every single page.
