Run for the Devil

Good Old Boat Book Review

Run for the Devil
by J.J. Ballesteros (iUniverse, 2017, 282 pages; $18.95 print, $3.99 Kindle edition)

Review by Wayne Gagnon

Run for the Devil centers around protagonist Simon Donovan, a sailor who ferries people and supplies along the shores of Mexico’s Bay of Campeche aboard his 65-foot schooner, Siete Mares. He’d brought her there and started his business to re-boot his life. He has a good reputation as someone who follows the rules, and at the same time knows how to get things done.

This is the stage on which Donovan’s life begins to unravel. Despite his capability as a sailor and businessman, Donovan is given to human weaknesses, primarily when it comes to women. And we learn Siete Mares has secrets of her own, as she’d previously sailed as Moonlight Runner until being intercepted by the U. S. Coast Guard in Texas with a load of cocaine aboard.

Author James Ballesteros was a federal agent who investigated international weapons and drug trafficking in Columbia and Mexico, so he certainly has the background and knowledge to tell a story like this one with credibility. The plot is straightforward but contains enough twists to keep things moving and interesting and not entirely predictable. A few characters in the book are developed in a manner that made me sure they’d be seen again, but then they disappeared from the story.

Run for the Devil is intriguing and offers a little something for anyone who enjoys a story that moves well and keeps you wondering what will happen next.

Wayne Gagnon is a semi-retired English teacher from Antigo, Wisconsin.  He’s been sailing Tortuga, his 1969 Westerly Centaur, on the bay of Green Bay in northern Lake Michigan since 2004, and sometime in the next year or two he wants to make it over to Lake Huron’s North Channel.  In the mean time he’s content to sail Green Bay and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

The Moonlight Runner

The Moonlight Runner
J. J. Ballesteros
iUniverse (Apr 10, 2019)
Softcover $20.99 (390pp)
978-1-5320-6847-8

The Moonlight Runner is a polished action adventure story featuring high seas antics and a roguish captain at the helm.

In J. J. Ballesteros’s thrilling The Moonlight Runner, a retired smuggler is drafted into arming one side in a Mexican community’s coming battle.

Since his previous adventures, Simon Donovan has settled into a life of relative peace in a small Mexican beach town, parlaying his experience as a smuggler into a successful sailing charter business with the occasional diving side job. His past comes thundering in, though, and shatters the peace. A malicious drug lord, Fausto Lopez, targets Donovan for a job smuggling munitions to fuel an oncoming war between rival drug traffickers. Lopez has everything to lose and makes sure Donovan does, too: if the cargo doesn’t arrive in time, Donovan’s allies will pay the price, and the local area will erupt into a devastating war.

This title is the second book in a trilogy, and there are references to the previous adventure, with groundwork laid for the following book. Context is provided as needed without slowing the story down. Thanks to the subtle incorporation of backstory, this title can function as a standalone adventure.

An intense prologue is followed by an establishing shot of Donovan’s life. His business, his friends, and his past are all grounded and connected to an engaging plot device: finding a ship’s bell. This pursuit goes awry as Lopez and the drug war pull Donovan and his ship into an ever-dangerous situation. The text balances its explosive action, intense romance, and thrilling adventure elements well, without letting any one element steal the show.

The primary characters are drawn in a deep and rich way. Donovan is a flawed hero with a troubled past, but remains steadfast in his morals. He may dip into darkness, but he always manages to bring his allies and himself out on the other side. His small circle of allies are all dynamic and realized, some with goals that conflict with Donovan’s own. Even the primary villain, Lopez, is written in such a way that he could be the hero in his own story: his life is vivid, and his motivations are clear.

Conversations are expositional, but in an unobtrusive way. Characters speak with engaging mannerisms and tones, highlighting who they are—especially in Donovan’s case. His charm is effortless, and he’s responded to with the respect of both authorities and criminals.

The story builds toward a satisfying ending with a promising cliffhanger. The Moonlight Runner is a polished action adventure story featuring high seas antics and a roguish captain at the helm.

JOHN M. MURRAY (June 5, 2019)

KIRKUS REVIEWS

THE MOONLIGHT RUNNER
J. J. Ballesteros
iUniverse (390 pp.)
$31.99 hardcover, $20.99 paperback, $3.99 e-book
ISBN: 978-1-5320-6846-1; April 9, 2019

BOOK REVIEW

In this second installment of a thriller series, a Mexican drug lord coerces a charter boat captain into smuggling a shipment of guns from Texas.

Drug trafficker Fausto “El Demonio” López wants Simon Donovan to work for him. In Panama, Donovan was a notorious smuggler who skirted but never outright broke the law. He now runs a charter business in the Mexican city of Campeche—Fausto’s neck of the woods. Fausto is currently planning to “seize control of the Campeche gangs.” But that requires guns, and after losing a cocaine shipment, Fausto has trouble securing more of the drug and consequently is short on funds. His henchman José Luis finally gets assistance from Houston associate Billy Chávez, and now all they need is a way to transfer the guns to Campeche. This seems like a perfect job for Donovan, who turned down Fausto’s previous offer of employment. So Fausto has his minions abduct Itzél Canek, a local minister’s wife with whom Donovan is undeniably in love. To ensure Itzél’s safety, Donovan sails his ship, the Siete Mares, to Texas to retrieve the guns. But with Fausto’s armed men onboard, Donovan has good reason to suspect the untrustworthy drug lord is plotting a double cross. Ballesteros (Run for the Devil, 2017) packs his story with riveting subplots, including a war with various drug cartels in Campeche and even a possible informant working with Billy in Texas. Unfortunately, this leads to narrative stretches without Donovan, whose situation isn’t quite as dire as those of some of the characters featured in the subplots. But by the final act, Donovan and others are in unmistakable peril. Moreover, there’s absorbing melodrama throughout. For example, Itzél’s husband, Benício, doesn’t cause his wife’s affair; he’s been good to her and raised her son, Poli, as his
own. Complicating matters is the fact that Donovan’s still mourning the loss of his fiancee, Xóchitl, an apparent dead ringer for Itzél. In one scene, Donovan, while discussing Itzél, inadvertently calls her Xóchitl. Since this volume is part of a trilogy, the story ends on a juicy cliffhanger.

A laudable protagonist shares the spotlight with exemplary supporting characters in this enthralling gang tale.

Blueink Review

The Moonlight Runner
J.J. Ballesteros
iUniverse, 390 pages, (paperback) $20.99, 978-1-5320-6847-8
(Reviewed: June 2018)

Retired federal agent J.J. Ballesteros draws from a career combating weapons and drug trafficking in Mexico and Central America for this sprawling second novel, a sequel to Ballesteros’ debut novel Run for the Devil (2017).

While the narrative is missing some backstory, readers will parse the plot from context. The bad guy is drug lord Fausto López, a man so malevolent he’s known as “El Demonio” — the Demon. He leads a hive of villainy on the Yucatan Peninsula coast.

The Demon’s eventual adversary and reluctant hero is reformed smuggler Simon Donovan, now a charter boat captain. His crew consists of Augie, Benício and young Poli, who not only suffer the natural friction between men sharing close quarters, but heightened tension because Donovan is having an affair with Benício’s wife, who is also Poli’s mother.

The plot is dense and complex, but it centers on the Demon’s plan to rally gangs to defeat the Norteño cartel, led by Colonel Aníbal Barca Rayos, also known as “El Rayo” (the “Thunderbolt”). To advance his complex war strategy, the Demon needs to smuggle hundreds of guns from Texas, and Donovan’s ship is the only local vessel quiet and fast enough to make the midnight run.

The Demon makes Donovan an offer he can’t refuse, but with some help from his crew, a local professor and a nun, the wily smuggler does his damnedest to escape this devil’s bargain. Meanwhile, substantial interstitial flashbacks inform us about Donovan’s troubled past.

The plotting is somewhat overzealous, but to his credit, Ballesteros never buries the lede, moving the narrative squarely towards the inevitable showdown between Donovan and the Demon. Although a little light on action and heavy on dialogue, the story’s authenticity and well-wrought cast of characters lend it a gripping realism.

While the narrative is too dense to be a page-turner, readers who enjoy immersive crime sagas will appreciate its Gordian composition and conflicted hero with everything to lose.
Also available as an ebook.

The Ghosts of Punta Morro
J.J. Ballesteros
iUniverse, 372 pages, (paperback) $20.99, 978-1-6632-0315-1
(Reviewed: November, 2020)

Reluctant smuggler and trouble magnet Simon Donovan returns in this action-spiked third volume that follows author J.J. Ballesteros’ Run for the Devil (2017) and The Moonlight Runner (2019).

The story begins where it ended last time, as Donovan and his motley crew flee a hellacious seagoing firefight in their schooner, the Siete Mares. In the previous novel, just before the aforementioned firefight, a cartel boss so evil he’s known as “El Demonio” had kidnapped Itzél, the married woman Donovan adores, and secreted her off to a hidden location. Now, fortunately for Donovan’s gang, they have something this demon wants: a big shipment of AK-47 machine guns the cartel needs to fight a running war with a rival cartel.

The merciless commander of this rival army is Col. Barca (also known as the “Thunderbolt”). His cartel plays a crucial role in Donovan’s plot to manipulate both sides of this bloody conflict in order to retrieve Itzél.

As the protagonists navigate this cartel minefield, readers meet a rogue’s gallery of characters, including Donovan’s partner Auggie; Itzel’s son Poli; quirky professor Dr. Ventura, and Demonio’s cousin Dario. There’s a plethora of dangerous characters who can derail our heroes’ plans in a heartbeat—vicious commandants, narco terrorists, intelligence operatives, and corrupt cops—and a few good apples, as well.

Much like Ballesteros’ previous books, this is fundamentally a story about showdowns and double crosses. To his credit, the author’s prose, dialogue, and characterizations are noticeably nimbler and more fine-tuned this time, although there’s still a tendency to shoehorn in extraneous characters who add little to the show. Donovan remains a troubled but intriguing hero, and Ballesteros has picked up the pace while still skillfully crafting the complex and violent web of intrigue on the Yucatan Coast.

The dizzying cast may lose some readers who find themselves struggling to keep up. But those who buy into the multifarious cast will enjoy a story that adroitly holds their attention throughout.

The Ghosts of Punta Morro: A Run for the Devil Novel

J. J. Ballesteros
iUniverse (Aug 12, 2020)
Hardcover $31.99 (372pp)
978-1-66320-315-1

Moving with speed but always engaging, the thriller The Ghosts of Punta Morro pits a wounded American against a vicious drug lord.

In J. J. Ballesteros’s thriller The Ghosts of Punta Morro, a man faces a conundrum: he can either give illegal weapons to a drug lord and save the love of his life, or he can kick-start a war in a peaceful place.

Simon is a lovesick but heroic Texan who makes his money as a charter schooner captain in a Mexican backwater, Campeche. The love of his life is Itzel, who is beautiful, but also married to Benicio. Itzel, Benicio, their sixteen-yearold son, and Simon form a roaming family of sorts aboard Simon’s schooner.

Their bliss is interrupted in a vicious way by El Demonio, a fearsome drug lord who Simon has crossed paths with before. Benicio is in debt to El Demonio because he needed money for an outboard motor; early on in the novel, the drug lord comes to collect. He kidnaps Itzel and demands that Simon use his boat to smuggle weapons, despite Simon’s schooner being wanted by both the US Coast Guard and the Mexican Navy. Simon must make a choice: he can either risk death on the high seas for Itzel, or face El Demonio’s wrath.

This high adventure is served with a dash of hard-boiled, proletarian sensibilities. The harsh realities of the Mexican drug war are laid bare on almost every page, as innocent Mexicans and Americans are wrapped up in blood feuds between narco syndicates and the corrupt Mexican government. Simon is one such sad soul, but despite his wounded heart (he went to Mexico following a personal tragedy), he proves to be an excellent hero in the story. He is offered many chances to take the safe way out, but he always does the right thing for Itzel and the citizens of Campeche.

Simon’s interactions with underworld figures result in standout scenes that are taut with tension. Crisp, laconic dialogues add to the sense of realism and move the novel forward. Background information about Itzel, Benicio, and Simon takes a backseat to the story’s action, which is volatile and violent. El Demonio is a terrific villain, made to ably represent, on his own, the progression of drug empires in Mexico. He may have begun his life of crime wearing leisure suits, but he graduated to cowboy wear, with a gang of paramilitary sicarios at his side.

Moving with speed but always engaging, the thriller The Ghosts of Punta Morro pits a wounded American against a vicious drug lord.

THE GHOSTS OF PUNTA MORRO
A Run for the Devil Novel
J. J. Ballesteros
Iuniverse Inc (372 pp.)
$31.99 hardcover, $20.99 paperback, $2.99 e-book
ISBN: 978-1-66320-317-5
August 12, 2020

BOOK REVIEW
A schooner captain makes deals and alliances with nefarious types to rescue the woman he loves in Ballesteros’ thriller, which concludes a trilogy.

It’s hardly surprising that retrieving a gun shipment for a drug lord proved a terrifying ordeal for Simon Donovan. He and his crew on the Siete Mares narrowly survived a gunfight on Padre Island in Texas. They now have 110 rifles for Fausto “El Demonio” López, who’s currently holding hostage Donovan’s beloved, Itzél Canek, in Mexico. Though Donovan wants to save her, he’s reluctant to hand over a series of weapons to the formidable baddie. It will undoubtedly result in bloodshed; Donovan learns Fausto wants the guns to start a war with rival crime boss Col. Aníbal Barca Rayos. So Donovan schemes to point authorities toward Fausto and Col. Barca. This, of course, requires an immense amount of help
from his friends and crew as well as dubious people who won’t hesitate to stab someone in the back. With any luck, Donovan can stay alive long enough to rescue Itzél and keep himself out of prison (a U.S. agent is eying him for the Texas incident). Ballesteros skillfully manages a vibrant assortment of Donovan’s loyal crew, miscreants, and crooked cops. The cast’s machinations generate a relentlessly tense story; for example, Dario Róbles, Fausto’s cousin, seems to be helping Donovan but isn’t exactly trustworthy. The novel relies heavily on earlier installments, and multiple discussions about what went down on Padre Island occasionally slow down the narrative. Regardles, Ballesteros provides both taut action scenes and arresting passages: “He saw the water cascading over a limestone cliff, dropping over a hundred feet into a clear pool of water with a thin veil of mist drifting surrealistically across it.”

A consistently edgy finale to an exhilarating series.