A gentle, spirited child grows into a hardened Miami police lieutenant in Kaminski’s coming-of age novel.

In 1960s Milwaukee, youngsters Luke Karpinski and his friends Eugene, Stanley, and Gus are constantly looking for their next adventure. Their episodic pigeon-catching, go-kart–building, and laundry-chute–sliding antics offer an engaging, if occasionally anxiety-inducing, read, and the simple innocence of their intimate friendship is heartwarming. However, the dreamy and rambunctious boyhood idyll transforms into a gritty crime drama when Luke moves to Miami to train as a police officer later in life; his compassionate nature is immediately put to the test with the tense situations he encounters on duty. His career spans the height of the drug war in south Florida in the early 1990s,forcing him to shed the softness of his youth as he experiences the violence of drug cartels and takes part in undercover operations with life-and-death stakes. Luke’s loss of innocence—which starts slow and then seems to suddenly accelerate—is interspersed with vignettelike returns to Luke’s childhood, in which Eugene, Stanley, and Gus are always ready to dream up a new exploit that leaves the boys jubilant and exhilarated. Kaminski, the author of Shadow Wolves(2020), weaves a bittersweet story in which happy memories become increasingly precious to the aging Luke, who’s eventually retired and alone. With a deft touch, the author sketches out the lifelong, meaningful relationships of his affable protagonist: with Luke’s family in Milwaukee, with his childhood friends, with his mentor at the police department, and with the new family he makes for himself in Miami. The narrative’s pacing is inconsistent, which makes the storyline feel somewhat meandering, and the dialogue can be a bit melodramatic at times. However, the dynamic energy of Luke’s early escapades and the harsh reality of the Florida drug war largely make up for these flaws.

An often moving and nostalgic paean to the vibrancy of boyhood friendships and the minutiae that make up a life.

A team of American Indian trackers faces off against a Mexican cartel that’s trafficking drugs and humans in Kaminski’s debut thriller.

Lakota Sioux Ethan Crowe has kept a low profile since the murders of his wife and son at the hands of a drug lord. But the former member of the U.S. Army’s elite Delta Force agrees to head a special team of trackers—among them Will Price, a Navajo; Isaac Factor, a Seminole; and Nalin Chee, an Apache—to fight cartels at the Mexican border. His main incentive is seeking justice after cartel’s assassination of a tribal police officer, the younger brother of a friend and fellow soldier of Crowe’s. The team, dubbed the Shadow Wolves, ultimately focuses on the Zetas, a drug cartel led by enigmatic Yaotl and with notorious sniper Romero as his “personal trigger finger.” But team members Nalin Chee and Hannah Lone Hawk track the Zetas and verify what they already suspected: The cartel is kidnapping women and children to sell as sex slaves. In confrontations and pursuits unfolding on both sides of the border, the Shadow Wolves aim to save lives and take down the Zetas. But knowing that Romero is the assassin who killed his friend’s brother, Crowe must decide if he wants to seek retribution. Kaminski aptly details the cast, whose American Indian characters originate from different tribes, including Apache, Seminole, Navajo, and Lakota, and have worked in varying professions. Shadow Wolf Isaac Factor, for example, had tracked drug smugglers for the Miami-Dade County Police while Hannah had been an agent for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. While racism is an unfortunate, perhaps expected burden Crowe and other American Indians endure, it’s often blatant in this book, which has numerous obviously prejudiced characters. Cartel villains, however, are violent and malicious, making it easy for readers to cheer the heroes during concisely drawn and tight action sequences. Despite implying that sequels will come, the ending is fulfilling even if more than one standout character sadly doesn’t make it.

An action-driven tale of heroes worth rooting for at the U.S.–Mexico border.