Through the Waves a Steady Path

Description of
Though the Waves a Steady Path

Reilly has nowhere to go.  Her mother is selling the house, her ex-boyfriend is painting her father’s condo, and she has been expelled from high school, just weeks before graduation.  In a moment of desperation, she remembers a goodbye letter left on her bedroom dresser five years ago by her father’s girlfriend at the time, Elaine Connor.  So Reilly drives into the city and knocks on the door of Elaine’s house.

Elaine has tried to change her life since her time with Reilly’s father.  Back then, Elaine was a detective in the Minneapolis Police Department and living a lifestyle barely different from those of the criminals she arrested, hitting bottom when her son died in an accident.  In an effort to reform her life, or maybe as an act of penance, Elaine quit the police force and moved back to the neighborhood of her youth, two houses down from her contentious mother.  She now works in the campus security office of a large university.

Although alarmed by Reilly’s sudden appearance, Elaine takes her in, just as she did Owen and Nathan – two ex-cons living across the street in a partially renovated house Elaine bought specifically for that purpose.  Part of Elaine’s rehabilitation, or penance, involves trying to help convicts she mistreated while on the police force.  So far, only Owen and Nathan have accepted her help.

Elaine not only gives Reilly a room in her house, she arranges an internship with the university police force, through which Reilly can earn enough credits to graduate. Several days later, Reilly accompanies Elaine to the office of a professor who committed suicide the night before.  As Elaine inventories the office, Reilly meets Tamara Soldich, a nervous female graduate student in her late-twenties.  Tamara seems particularly curious about what will happen to the contents of the professor’s desk.  Elaine later learns that Tamara was having an affair with the professor.

The disarray of the professor’s office, along with his erased email account, raise questions with Elaine.  However, the university president urges her to close the case as soon as possible, before the reputation of the troubled professor takes any more hits.  His sensitivity, along with his respectful regard for her judgment, inspires Elaine’s loyalty.  This loyalty intensifies a few days later when a bomb explodes in a classroom building and the president asks Elaine to act as his personal liaison to the investigations conducted by the FBI and the Minneapolis Police Department.

With a smoldering, cratered building at its center, the campus falls into chaos.  Police barricades disrupt traffic; rescue vehicles and heavy construction equipment clog the grounds; and medical tents and ambulances serve as constant reminders of the human toll.  With most university employees staying home, information on the possible victims of the explosion is difficult to obtain.  So Elaine asks Nathan to help.  A computer whiz and an expert in hacking, Nathan is out on parole after being convicted of breaking into a bank’s computer system.

Nathan discovers that an LGBTQ group was meeting in one of the two classrooms directly impacted by the bomb.  Thrilled that the university has uncovered this information before any of the law enforcement agencies, the president hastily convenes a press conference.  He later scoops those agencies again, after Nathan uncovers the identity of a likely suspect.  But Elaine knows the suspect and is skeptical that he conducted such a complicated bombing.

The university’s focus on the LGBTQ victims contrasts sharply with its concern for the other victims of the explosion, especially the occupants of the classroom adjacent to the one used by the LGBTQ group.  Because of the powerful blast, the bodies of those victims cannot be recovered, and the university seems resigned to the fact that the identities may never be known.  But Nathan has uncovered some clues, and those clues dovetail with certain fears of Tamara, who now believes the professor’s suicide was connected with the bombing.  This belief intensifies with a subsequent suicide that almost goes unnoticed in a city absorbed with a hate-crime bombing.  The victim is a university student, and the police explain the suicide as a result of depression over the bombing deaths of his friends.  But Nathan does not buy this story.  Nor does Elaine.

Elaine faces growing pressure to cease investigating the other bombing victims.  The president argues that it will only distract from the real truth of the bombing: a hate crime committed by religious zealots.  But the facts begin to accumulate, suggesting that the LGBTQ group may have been an attempt to divert attention from the real object of the bombing.  The other classroom hit by the bomb may have been occupied by the suicide professor’s class, called to that room by a mysterious substitute teacher; and the student who committed suicide may have been the only member of that class not present at the time of the explosion.  The woman seen with both the professor and the student on the nights of their deaths worked for a multinational corporation that is a major donor to the university and the employer of a large group of international students, all from the same country, and all appearing on a list of missing students after the bombing.

Elaine focuses on these students, discovering that although they have not attended class in years, they have been enrolled and paying tuition the entire time.  Eventually, and despite growing opposition from the university president and MPD, Elaine discovers connections between the university, the corporation, the missing international students, the alleged suicides, and a smuggling scheme involving the importation of prohibited materials.  The final piece of the puzzle is revealed when Elaine learns of the president’s role in the conspiracy.

Reviews for Through the Waves a Steady Path

The character development in this book was top notch.  Elaine and Reilly each are going through personal conflicts, and it was interesting to see their characters develop throughout the entire story of conflict, turmoil, and tough relationships.
-Midwest Book Awards

Through The Waves a Steady Path by Patrick M. Garry is an interesting novel. Conspiracies, espionage, friendship, manipulation, sacrifice, and loyalty were expressed in the book. The characters were remarkable, especially Reilly, Elaine, Milo, and Nathan. They were a great team. There was a lot of self-reflection on Elaine’s part, offering poignant questions to the reader. Why do we do good deeds for others? Is it out of pure altruism, self-interest/having the recipients in our debt, or both? That’s a question we should always ask ourselves. I loved the plot and storyline, as they were unique and had depth. Patrick employed an attention-grabbing method of writing that took me from past to present and back without losing me. I enjoyed reading this novel, thanks to a great story, dynamic characters, and flawless editing.
-Readers’ Favorite 5 Star Review

Literary Awards

Midwest Independent Publishers Book Award

Book Excellence Award

National Indie Excellence Book Award

Somerset Literary Fiction Award

2021 Purple Dragonfly Book Award

CIBA Mystery & Mayhem Book Award

Colorado Independent Publisher Book Award, Silver Award

2021 Shelf Unbound Book Award