OPIOID, INDIANA by Brian Allen Carr

 








Published in 2019 by SOHO Press.

I received a gift card from a book store and I decided to get this book by a local author for several reasons: 1) it is set in my area; 2) it deals with the opioid crisis; 3) I like to encourage local authors. 

Turns out that the author is NOT a local (Indiana) author - he is from Texas. Small town Texas and small town Indiana do have a lot in common when it comes to drugs and alcohol, though.

Riggle is 17 years old and lives in a town in central Indiana and suspended from high school for a week due to a suspension for having a vape pen at school. His week won't be used to lay around in bed or play videogames, though. 

Riggle lives with his uncle, his sole guardian after the deaths of his parents and his uncle has gone missing. His uncle's live in girlfriend (not much older than Riggle) has no idea where his uncle is. This is not necessarily an unusual thing - he has been know to abuse substances and go on all night benders, but he's been gone for too long - and the $800 in back rent is due on Friday. If it is not paid, they will be evicted in the middle of winter. 

Riggle has been given two tasks by his uncle's girlfriend - find his uncle and find $800...

The opening chapter in the book was very good, the characters felt and sounded authentic but Riggle's adventures around town got bogged down with a series of stories about how the various days of the week got their names that Riggle's mother had told him before she passed away. I am not really sure what the author was trying to do with these little stories, but I felt like they just disrupted the flow of the story and weren't particularly entertaining. 

I rate this novel 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: OPIOID, INDIANA by Brian Allen Carr. 

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