Would You Kill For Friendship?

Curling up with B.J. Loft’s new book, “The North Point Boys,” is much like snuggling into the sofa cushions to watch an especially fascinating episode of “Law and Order.” Loft grabs the reader with a vicious murder in the first few pages – and won’t let go.

Sue Baker is baking an apple pie, a reward for her 8-year-old daughter’s “A” in spelling, when a man with a grudge shatters the peace of an otherwise quiet town. Baker is stabbed in the heart. Her daughter, in the wrong place at the wrong time, is beaten with a glass coke bottle and slaughtered in her own home. Even the family dog, Freckles, is left to die.

The year is 1970, and the quiet town of North Port is consumed with finding the killer.

Police detectives, coroners, lawyers and the reader are all fascinated by the evidence. It is a tribute to Loft’s stellar and quick-moving writing that with each twist the reader picks a new suspect.

Husband Dave Baker is quickly cleared as the culprit. He is, instead, a man mourning for the murder of his family.

“Dave sat on the couch in his parent’s living room. He thought of Sue, the appeal of her on the day they had met, the faint smell of coffee on her breath, and Katie, the touch of her tiny body against his chest, the sound of her breathing as she slept. But he found no peace even in the good memories; all were a torment to his questioning soul. His memory of that evening never lost clarity – every odor and every image remained. A week after the funeral, Dave visited the gravesites. It was bad enough looking a Sue’s headstone. Seeing Katie’s was devastating.”

Many crime writers would paint the killer as one-dimensional, but Loft doesn’t short-change the reader by delivering an easily pegged bad guy. The reader isn’t meant to like the killer, but Loft does use his skill to go the extra step of peeking into the murderer’s mind before, during, and after the slaughter. The killer may not be likeable – but he does come off as understandable.

Loft does a fantastic job of delivering three stories at once: the manhunt for a killer, the ensuing court drama, and the bond of friendship that turns Dave’s long-time friends into vigilantes.

“The North Point Boys” is a clever blend of forensics, justice and the fast-paced mystery genre made famous by prime-time television dramas. This novel is best enjoyed on a weekend by the beach, or a Friday night on your favorite chair. This book isn’t crafted to be a life-altering, philosophical look at crime. “The North Point Boys” is better than that. It’s crime-solving escapism at its finest.

B.J. Loft spent four years in the Air Force, and worked for the Department of the Army for twenty-seven years. He and his wife, June, have been married thirty-five years and live together in Eldrige, Iowa. “The North Point Boys” is Loft’s first book.