Reviews

“Witness the vicissitudes of youth through the eyes of three different families in this bold tale of immigration, racism, and social politics.

Based on a crime witnessed in his childhood, Richard Worrell's debut novel, Nexus, illustrates life obstacles, decisions and consequences amidst the turmoil of youthful hubris while examining how crime and racism infiltrate the lives of three families. The individual narratives of each storyline character are a coalescence of several different individuals the author has known. Through their experiences, Worrell explores the zeitgeist, interwoven paths and life circumstances and multi-generational relationships of three central families.

Daria Keenan is a web designer and fervent supporter of Steve Bannon. Her affiliation with white supremacists, including her powerful and power-hungry aunt, Jeri-Lee, puts her at odds with seasoned journalist Carl Graham. Carl's investigations into the D'Bettano corporation have made him enemy number one, and when it comes time to silence Carl, Daria is more than happy to oblige. Traveling back in time to the 1960s to the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn, Detective Dan McBride is investigating mobster Paolo D'Bettano whose ability to stay under the radar while committing atrocities makes him untouchable. But Det. McBride may just prove to be a worthy opponent. And there's Mary DeLuca and her best friend Jimmy Fain. An Irish immigrant, Jimmy's father is a vocal critic of racism, making him a target of the merciless D'Bettano crime syndicate.

Drawing inspiration from his childhood in New York City and current life in Northern California to set the scene, Worrell's knowledge of Brooklyn alongside his extensive historical research paints a vivid portrait as he moves from present day to the past, shining a spotlight on the generational legacy of racial animus while readers draw moral and ethical conclusions.”

— Amazon

“A stirring saga of immigration and racism, this novel depicts how crime and racism intertwine in the lives of three families.

Set in Northern California, 2022, a racist young woman named Daria Keenan (“web-designer and regional white-pride organizer by day”) and her group of white supremacist friends have targeted Carl Graham, a 68-year-old Black muckraking journalist whose inquiries into the shady D’Bettano corporation have made him the enemy of high-powered white supremacists in California. Daria herself is a fervent disciple of former Trump aide and ex-con Steve Bannon, and her powerful aunt, Jeri-Lee, is even more closely connected with the felon-in-chief’s inner circle. ‘Jeri-Lee loved having power,’ readers are told, “power in material wealth, power in social settings, power in politics, power in controlling the narrative.” Daria and her friends tail Graham, and they no sooner run him off the road than the setting switches to the 1960s Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn. Here, readers meet an array of characters, from Det. Dan McBride, who’s investigating Paolo D’Bettano (‘Many criminals are noisy about their criminality,’ he thinks about the sly D’Bettano. ‘A rare few are truly genius at being low-profile monsters’) to Mary DeLuca and her best friend Jimmy Fain, whose father, Irish immigrant Jack Fain, is killed by mobsters for advocating against the racism of the time (‘Humankind’s alarming sociopathic tendencies across all continents bewildered and disgusted Jack’).

This tremendously ambitious novel seeks to flesh out and dramatize several genealogies of racial animus. Worrell ably meets this goal by amassing a great deal of historical information and filling it with flesh and color. The book’s descriptions of mid-century Brooklyn are as evocative as anything written on the region in decades, and the frequent detours to older history effectively ground the later action and go a long way to making this author the Michener of Canarsie. The characters are uniformly well-drawn, from foundational social justice saints, like poor Jack Fain, to a far more complex figure, like Carl Graham. Readers equipped with lots of curiosity and a good deal of patience will find both amply rewarded in these pages, particularly in the morally devastating concluding sections, when ethical condemnations are handed out: ‘Too many people straddle the line, unable to keep it real and maintain what can honestly be reasoned to be sensible convictions or principals.’

A stirring saga of immigration and racism.” — Kirkus Review