An epic battle between good and evil.
The police fabricated a story about the night four members of MS-13 died in a tiny home on a quiet city street almost two years previous. George Tokay and his friends were not supposed to share the secret about what really happened that night. No one was to know the truth. But someone talked, and now MS-13, ruthless and wanting revenge, is back in town, and people are dying.
Can Detectives Graff, O'Connor, and Eiselmann, find the killers and put a stop to the killing before anyone else dies?
International Writers Inspiring Change review
Black Yéʼii: (The Evil One), by Joseph Lewis, is a police procedural thriller. Within the first minute of reading this story, it captures you with a brutal double murder that sets the pace for the entire novel. Blood thirsty revenge would be a charitable term, because when members of the MS-13 gang come back to town to avenge the deaths of four of their members, they are merciless killers. As police and detectives investigate the double murders, they start to connect the dots, and it becomes clear that the target of this revenge killing is a group of young men, one in particular, who apparently holds the secret to what happened on that night when four gang members were killed. We follow law enforcement, as they Sherlock the trail of blood, one that eventually culminates in a face-off. A cold-blooded thriller that will keep you reading to the end.
Review by International Writers Inspiring Change
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About Joseph Lewis
iWIC: What inspired you to start writing?
I started writing in 6th grade when my teacher used "story starters" for those who wanted them. They were four or five paragraphs on a notecard and the idea was to pick one and finish the story. No extra credit was given, but she gave wonderful feedback to those of us who used them. I think I must have written all of them. She was really inspiring.
iWIC: Who or what most inspired you in life?
I've been in education for 49 years and counting, and there were many who inspired me, mentored me along the way. My older brother Jack, himself a teacher, coach, administrator and superintendent. Bill Bertrand, a principal mentor - if I could have been half the principal he was, I'd be a success. The kids I taught, coached, and counseled - I learned more from them than they ever learned from me. My son, deceased in 2014, and my two daughters, Hannah - a 3rd grade teacher and Emily - a clinical social worker - they continue to amaze me. And my wife, Kim, who has supported me and followed me all over the country as both of us worked in education - without her support and love, I'd be nothing. I also learned much from reading Stephen King, Tony Hillerman and James Patterson. You can find their fingerprints all over my work.
iWIC: What kind of inspiration or message are you hoping to convey to your readers?
I am different from most, if not all, thriller-crime-mystery writers, in that I have a strong coming-of-age thread running throughout each of my books. Not only are there cops and FBI agents, but I have a patchwork family of seven adopted boys with varying amounts of baggage they deal with. I think my readers identify with themes of family, love, loyalty, and hope, along with survival and persistence. Each of those themes are hallmarks in my writing.
iWIC: What's the backstory on Black Yéʼii - in other words, how did it come about? Is there a story behind the story?
At the end of one of my earlier books, Caught in a Web, three detectives concocted a story in order to protect four individuals from MS-13. If the truth were known of what happened to several members of a violent gang, MS-13, they would hunt for the four who lived. In Black Yéʼii, someone told the secret and MS-13 came back to town to finish what they had begun. Yéʼii are the spiritual deities of the Navajo Nation, and there are many. However, there is one they never speak of, which is Black Yéʼii, because by simply mentioning the name, one is inviting evil into his or her life. The translation of Black Yéʼii in the Navajo language means The Evil One. Two of my young characters are full-blooded Navajo, born and raised on the Navajo Nation Reservation until their families had a tragic end.
Bio:
Joseph Lewis has a new thriller/suspense book, Fan Mail (March 2023), and has already won a Silver Book Award from Reader's Favorites, a Maxy Finalist Award, an Eric Hoffer Award Nominee, and a Literary Titan Silver Book Award. Blaze In, Blaze Out (January 2022) has won five awards so far, including Best Fiction Crime Action Book of 2022 by BestThrillers.com. His previous novels include Betrayed (November 2020) which has won eight awards; Spiral Into Darkness as of January 2019, which has won one award; Caught in a Web (May 2018), which earned two awards. Previously, Lewis has published four books: Taking Lives, (November 2020) a prequel to the Lives Trilogy; Stolen Lives, (November 2020) Book One of the Lives Trilogy, which won one award; Shattered Lives, Book Two (November 2020); and Splintered Lives, Book Three (November 2020). Each book is in the thriller/crime genre, and each has garnered outstanding reviews. He writes a weekly inspirational blog, Simple Thoughts From A Complicated Mind, Sort Of. Lewis retired after 47 years as a teacher, coach, counselor and administrator.
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