The Link Boy by Michael J. Martineck

I received this book as a pre-publication copy from the publisher. This in no way influenced my review. Set about a hundred years into the future, this interesting novel is set against a background where three corporations run things around the world. There are no more nations just these corporations. They decide what you will do with your life when you are thirteen based on your performance in school.  Teachers teach in the morning and at night.  The Catholic Church is another entity in the mix. They are quite powerful and do a lot of mediation work between the corporations.  The priests do not have to take a vow of celibacy, though some do. They have women priests, though it is still run by men. You are forced to exercise every day or face a fine and get in trouble with the corporations.  You also go and get a physical twice a year.  You also wear a link on your wrist that you get when you are born, though you can certainly change them as you grow older.  They provide you with access to the internet, books to read, information on the person you are talking to, and much, much, more.

This book is centered around three people: Detective Edwin McCallum, Father Demiana DeFalco, and teacher Neelesh Fhor.  McCallum gets a call to go to a house that is being invaded one night and interrupts a man who has just murdered a doctor. The mysterious figure fights with precision and uses a wire to cut his achilles tendon and get away.  This puts him off the case and on suspension until he is better. He goes home and paints and draws, something he is really good at, but he is also secretly looking into the case.

Father DeFalco is being asked to do a mediation, something she has never done before.  The mediation is between the India and Hong Kong corporation who have a problem with a nuclear reactor that belongs to Ambyr Consolidated.  The book is set where New York was which is covered by Ambyr Consolidated.  The reactor is located right on the Erie River and the other two corporations are worried that it will blow and ruin the water.  This argument has been going on for thirty years with no one getting anywhere.  DeFalco insists on going inside the plant and finds something that will surprise her as to what is really going on inside that plant.

Neelesh teaches thirteen-year-olds about the history of corporations.  He's still young enough to care that his kids learn in a fun way, but not too fun because that would go against the corporate policy.  When he tries to help a student he runs into great difficulty with the kid's father.  He has no life but visits his closelipped mother with her very nice job, every day to eat a meal with her.  His doctor pulled some strings and got him his teaching job.  His doctor is the one that was murdered and required him to run a battery of tests every year that his new doctor says are entirely unnecessary as he is healthy.

You will begin to wonder how these three threads of the story will come together, but never fear they do and in a very cool way.  McCallum will be the one to bring the three of them together.  I really loved the characters in this book. McCallum with his tough guy routine that is straight out of a 1930s mystery novel. He even has the trench coat. But he paints these beautiful pictures that he refuses to sell.  Then there's the priest, DeFalco who enjoys going to bars and listening to illegal music and drinking with her friends.  She also tries desperately not to cuss, which is so funny.  She's tough, intelligent, and smart-mouthed, which gets her into all kinds of trouble.  Neelesh is the teacher everyone should want, but no one appreciates.  He promises to himself to not lie to his students and kills himself trying to make a boring class interesting.  His teaching methods get him in trouble with the corporation of course even though he has the highest test scores. He also loves to go to the track and race his Saab.  There's this rebel with a cause streak in him. This book was the second book in the Freeworld series, though I can tell you that it doesn't affect the reading at all. I was not lost, but it does make me curious to read the first book, The Milman.  This was a truly enjoyable book and a look at where we could be headed.  And for those curious about the title like I was while reading the book wondering what it meant, it does get explained at the very end of the book.  I cannot recommend this book enough. 

Quotes

Irony. Demiana had always thought that irony, as opposed to cleanliness, was next to Godliness. God wasn’t exactly clean; he put more dirt in the world than just about anything else.  Irony? He must have made that for himself.

-Michael J. Martineck (The Link Boy p 236)

Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Link-Boy-Free-World-Novel-ebook/dp/B072BMVP2J/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519220145&sr=8-1&keywords=the+link+boy