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It is now two years since Lola Vasquez first appeared in LOLA. Our heroine (villainous as she is), head of the Crenshaw Six Drug Cartel in South Central LA, has taken on a partner, Andrea Dennison Whitely, an LA public prosecutor, a woman as white as Lola is dark. She has also adopted seven-year-old Lucy, whose mother had been pimping her daughter out for heroin money, just as Lola’s mother had when Lola was young.
Lola’s mother has become a recovering addict who is a health nut, insensitive and self-absorbed as most recovering heroin addicts are. But Lola is loyal to family, even her little brother Hector, whom she raised as best she could. Now Hector is in prison for a murder that Lola committed to save Hector, and she needs him to take care of someone who is in Locust Ridge prison with him.
And there is trouble in her crew. The only woman and the head of the gang, Lola has a rule never to sell to kids or white teenagers in fancy cars. One of her guys has broken this rule, selling to a bunch of kids in a Range Rover. More trouble arrives when Lola learns that one of those kids OD'd, almost dying, and he belongs to her partner Andrea.
Meanwhile, back to the plot, Lola must again deal with a new cartel which has just expanded into LA. And Oops, one of the kingpins of the new gang, just got shivved in Locust Ridge. Hector must now be sprung from the prison before retaliation gets him too.
Lola, who has traded her last lover to the new cartel to gain some time, now has so many problems on her plate that when Andrea disappears, possibly kidnapped, she finds herself alone at the top. Of course, there is Manuel, her new squeeze, whom she will let into her bed but not into her heart. But can she trust him, or Hector, who has a bone to pick with her, as does Andrea?
A horrifying scene ensues, with all of them present, as well as the new cartel. Lola must sacrifice some of her allies and save others, on a midnight beach, with guns blazing from all directions.
AMERICAN HEROIN, like LOLA, is packed with great female characters, criminals all, but full of humanity, loving family and friends and trying to protect them. And then there is little Lucy, trying to navigate the complexities of little girl friendship triangles and life at her fancy private school, screwing up and challenging Lola’s parenting skills. Much of the suspense throughout the book is based on fear for Lucy, so vulnerable, who lives between two worlds, both vicious. Can Lola live up to the biggest challenge in her life, providing Lucy a life that will allow her to heal her wounds and grow up in a better world than Lola’s?
It was a great pleasure to read AMERICAN HEROIN and let’s hope there is another Lola Vasquez novel in the works.
§ Susan Hoover is a playwright, independent producer and retired college English teacher. She lives in Nova Scotia.
Reviewed by Susan Hoover, December 2018
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