Toward the Light

Bonnar Spring

Jan 2020 · Oceanview Publishing

About this ebook

Nothing is as it seems—and no one is telling the truth

Luz Concepcion returns to Guatemala to murder Martin Benavides, the man who destroyed her family. Benavides, who rose from insurgent fighter to president, controls a major drug network. Richard Clement became Luz's resettlement officer when she was evacuated to the U.S. He now works for the CIA, which has its own reasons for eliminating Benavides. Richard's team persuades Luz to pursue a job as nanny to Benavides' grandson, Cesar, a lonely child with an absentee playboy father.

The Guatemala contact for her mission is Evan McManus, an expat painter who pursues Luz, hoping to persuade her to model for him—and more. Luz initially spurns his advances, but her first terrifying encounter with Martin Benavides propels her into his arms.

Complicating matters, Luz conceals from all sides her clandestine contact with her surviving cousin, Antonio Torres, a guerrilla leader fighting the government propped up by the Benavides and their drug money.

Her plans unravel as, bit by bit, Luz learns that nothing is as it seems—and no one is telling the whole truth.

Perfect for readers who appreciate a novel female protagonist, an "everywoman" confronted with an overwhelming moral dilemma and crushing physical danger

Ratings and reviews

I received a free electronic ARC of this modern novel on January 8, 2020, from Netgalley, Bonnar Spring, and Oceanview Publishing. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. I am pleased to recommend Bonnar Spring to friends and family. Bonnar Spring writes a compelling tale with lots of twists and turns and word pictures that take you there. Luz Conception, a political alien in the U.S. for about 20 years, has had an awful year. Her beloved mother had a slow, lingering death, and her last wish is to have her ashes buried in the resting place of her cherished husband, a victim of the revolution. Then Lux is diagnosed with ALS and has to give up her job as a nanny at a daycare. Knowing her time is very limited, she resolves to honor her mother's wish - and with the aid and encouragement of Richard Clement, re-settlement agent and later friend who helped her and her mother adapt to life in the U.S., Luz decided to return to Guatemala inter her mothers ashes in her father's grave, and kill the man who murdered her father and many of the citizens of their mountain community. To make what would be most likely her last year count for something important to her and her family. Richard is able to get her a position as the afternoon nanny to the grandson of Martin Benavides, the man Luz believes killed her father. Martin was the rebel leader and later President of Guatemala until his retirement a year or so back. Under the fictitious name of Luz Arada, fake passport and papers in hand, Luz flies into Guatemala City and flows into the rhythm of the Benavides household, which is very seriously defended, both with many levels of locked sections of the household, and several wandering armed guards. Cesar Benevides is a sweet kid, six or eight years old, isolated in this household and tutored by a Priest who comes into the Benevides stronghold several mornings a week. Cesar's older sister was sent to Spain a year ago to a boarding school after an attempted kidnapping from her school, but Cesar is too young to be sent so far away. Luz has a small apartment set up by Richard, and Richard's nephew, Evan McManus, is her local contact. Evan quickly and becomes a friend and intimate to Luz. Her hands are full - and unbeknownst to Evan and Richard, she has a Guatemala City contact with her mother's sister Juana in the food market in town. Her mother had always told her that to contact family back home, go to the orange seller in the GC market. And through Juana, she has contact with her cousin Antonio Torres, who, just a teen, was responsible for getting her and her mother on an evacuation helicopter on the night her father died so long ago. Antonio is now the outlaw commander of the Frente Popular de Liberacion, leader of the civil war, a war still being fought in her country. Even Evan should not know about her contact with Tonio - which is hard to insure after Tonio is injured in the City and works his way to her apartment, where she is able to patch him up and keep him hidden until his mother can arrange to have him moved. Martin is now a frail old man with a wheel-chair-bound wife and they obviously love their grandson Cesar. Their son Robert, father of Cesar, is a man without empathy or conscience. Luz knows personally that Bobby Benevides is a bully and danger to women in general, living the grand life of the privileged. Most of Cesar's problems rest at the hands of his father, neglectful and finding no time for his son while showering him with expensive gifts. Just as she learns to adore Cesar, so do Martin and wife Dominga lose their devil's horns as she gets to know them personally. Luz is having a hard time separating the truth from fiction, and just who ARE the bad guys in Guatemala? The incumbent government? The Revolutionaries? The cartels? Seems like the casting list is changing almost daily. And then Richard arrives in Guatemala City. Luz is having trouble keeping all the balls she is juggling in

About the author

Bonnar Spring writes eclectic and stylish mystery-suspense novels with an international flavor. An inveterate traveler, she hitchhiked across Europe at sixteen and joined the Peace Corps after college. Bonnar has taught ESL—English as a Second Language—at a community college and divides her time between tiny houses on a New Hampshire salt marsh and by the Sea of Abaco. Toward the Light is her debut novel.