Fate's Redemption

by Keith Lee Johnson

Book Overview

In this gritty and suspenseful family drama from celebrated storyteller Keith Lee Johnson, three brothers find their professional and romantic lives veering out of control and heading toward a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1593090390
• ISBN13: 9781593090395
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Strebor Books
• Length: 576 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A very intelligent read, VERY thought provoking!

Fate's Redemption is a novel that allows us to peek into the lives of three successful brothers. This book is first and foremost a story about interracial love and the impacts it has on individual lives, society, and families. Fate's Redemption takes a hard honest look at race and answers the questions we really dont want to answer but that we know other races want to know. This novel is about race, love, and relationships. Keith Lee Johnson is a descriptive writer who I see as the next James Patterson, he can weave a tale of suspense and this book does a great job of getting you at the first page and holding your attention to the very end. This book will have you missing sleep to read. I give it 5 stars.

A Master Storyteller

Benjamin and Brenda Wise have instilled moral values, a work ethic, and a strong sense of racial pride in their three sons: Jericho, Sterling, and William Wise. The middle son, Sterling becomes a lawyer and the youngest son, William becomes a psychologist with his own practice. The eldest son, Jericho, is a huge disappointment to his parents. Jericho and Vietnamese wife,Pin live in the Cayman Islands and are leaders of an elite group of former military personnel who are drug runners and munitions suppliers with CIA conncetions. The story starts with a bang with Jericho and crew in the middle of a heart-stopping dangerous high-level drug deal. But the story isn't about Jericho. Jericho is just a minor character. What a shame. Whenever Jericho makes an appearance in the book, it's edge-of-your-seat excitement. The main character is William Wise, who spends a large portion of the book grappling with the moral dilemna of whether or not he should get involved with a colleague, Terry Moretti. Terry is a very nice, intelligent, successful, and witty white woman who is crazy about William. The problem is William doesn't want to be perceived as the stereotypical black man who becomes successful and forgets all about the sistahs who had his back along the way. To be honest, I didn't care for William; I found him bland. Keith Lee Johnson, on the other hand, has such superior writing skills that I was glued to every page and I must admit, I yearned for more bad boy, Jericho. Hint. Hint. Hint. All in all, this book will make you do some serious soul searching on your own views on interracial relationships. I give this book 5 stars and reiterate: Keith Lee Johnson is a writer to be taken quite seriously. He's at the top of his game.

Thought Provoking

This novel reminded me so much of the movie CRASH because of its unrestrained and cutting dialogue. The real story, for me anyway, began after Will and Terry, who work together, decide to have a secret relationship. Secret affairs on the job are nothing new, but these two are of different races. One black and the other white. Most of the story takes place in San Francisco in 1997, which makes the storyline even more remarkable to me. I'm not sure I believe attitudes are still so narrow that this kind of thing can still happen. I'm assuming this is really fiction and that none of this actually happened. Real or imagined, the novel is quite thought provoking. The author made me think of some very troubling questions. Are blacks making excuses for their shortcomings? Or is racism so tightly concealed that much of it goes undetected? As an African American female, who has never been in an interracial relationship before, I'm not sure I would want to be in one after read this. I have been approached by a number of white men like one of the characters. Jeannine is her name if I'm not mistaken. But, I've always declined, even though I wanted to. I offer no reasons why. One things for sure, this is a novel that I'll be thinking about for a long time. Great Job Keith.

Powerfully written

Fate's Redemption is a heat seeking missile and its locked right on target. You can try to get out of its way, but you can't. The storyline isn't strictly about race, but this novel does look very deeply into black and white relationships in the workplace, and in intimate surroundings. As a woman involved in this kind of romance, I wasn't surprised by anything in this book as I have lived much of it. I've had to deal with women who judged me solely on my appearance. Sadly, when they find out what "race" I belong to, they offered many apologies as if that changed what they said to me in the first place. I hope Mr. Johnson's book sells well. But more importantly, I hope its read because this is required reading, or should be.

Finally! An Author with some balls!

Keith Lee Johnson is no stranger to controversial subject matter in his novels. I'm not a reader, but my wife bought me a book called Pretenses last summer and I've been reading this man's books every since. His stories are different and bold to say the least. He is bold in his books and he talks about subjects such as man on man rape, female assassins and serial killers, women who prostitute their children, and now he done gone and told the truth about interracial (black woman white man ) relationships. And it's about time! Me and my wife, and me and my boys have discussed this and he's telling it like it is. And he's taking no prisoners, naming names and everything. Johnson spares no one in this one, black or white. I guess what I like most is that he didn't gloss over the subject of interracial dating like a lot of people do and then have some sappy ending that isn't the way things are. This man goes places we have all been in private conversation. Fate's Redemption does it in the open without apology. My favorite character is Jericho. He's right up there with Coco Nimburu from pretenses! Even though he's a bad guy, I like the way he handles his business in the streets. He's tough, intelligent, and doesn't hesitate to kill when he has too. He's involved with a CIA plot that black folk have believed for years. The CIA is trading guns for cocaine and the money is used to buy more guns and more cocaine until the streets in America are filled with blood and crackheads. Can Jericho get away with it? Or will the CIA shut him up permanently? If that's not enough action, the family drama is off the hook too! When the truth comes out in a white family, their heated exchanges are unforgettable. Who knew about all those skeletons in the closet? My wife just told me to mention the character development. I'm not all into books like she is, but okay, she says the character development is excellent. Me, I just know a good story when I read one and I don't read many. Anyway, I loved this book. Can't wait for the next one. I hope it's a Phoenix Perry Novel.