Guardian of the Red Butterfly - D.S. Cuellar

   2013; 294 pages.  New Author? : Yes.  Book 1 (out of 2, so far) in the “Guardian” series.  Genre : Action-Thriller; Martial Arts.  Overall Rating : 6*/10.

    The wonderful city of Portland, Oregon has not one, but two undergrounds.  There is a literal one, a labyrinth of passageways leading from various hotels and bars to the dockside on the Willamette River.  A long time ago, they were used to move cargo from ships to various establishments without having to deal with urban traffic.  Wikipedia has an article about this; you can find it here.

    Portland’s other underground is more figurative.  It refers to the clandestine and forced transport of human beings out from the city to waiting ships, to be used as slave labor.

    Sometimes the two undergrounds overlapped into one operation.  In the early days, able-bodied men were kidnapped and moved via these tunnels onto ships, and forced into grueling manual servitude.  This practice was nicknamed “shanghaiing”, hence the local name for the underground, the “Shanghai Tunnels”.

     Now a new, modern-day enterprise has sprung up.  Someone is using the Portland underground for sex trafficking, sneaking underage girls from the city to overseas destinations.  And the Shanghai Tunnels have inherited a new moniker because of this.  The perpetrators now call it “The Unheavenly City”.

    The Portland Police Department really needs to infiltrate this despicable operation and shut it down.  But how?

What’s To Like...

    The action in Guardian of the Red Butterfly starts immediately and never lets up.  I suspect D.S. Cuellar made a conscious to do this, and he succeeded nicely – simply put, there are no slow spots.  The writing style is story-driven; things are presented in a very straightforward manner, with sparse descriptions and little or no philosophical musing.  I call it the “Clive Cussler” approach.

    This is a “sex and thrills” story, so expect a lot of both, along with the concomitant cussing.  I liked the characters; even the bad guys were interesting.  There are 32 chapters covering the 294 pages, so there’s always a convenient place to stop for the night.   The formatting of the text is not justified, which bugged my OCD mind.  But it probably won’t bother most readers.

    The core idea for the novel is very good: sex trafficking and the toll it takes on its victims makes for a powerful theme.  I enjoyed learning about medieval Japanese culture – the geisha, samurai, and a pair of “companion” swords.  You’ll learn who the “guardian” is on page 75, and who the “Red Butterfly” is on page 208.  I chuckled at the cultural nicety of using two hands to present something politely to another person.  Years ago, I had to learn to do this when giving my business cards to customers on a week-long business trip in the Far East.

    Everything builds to a suitably tense climax.  There were some parts of it I had trouble visualizing, and a couple details strained my believability limits.  But I say that about Dirk Pitt novels too.  And oh yeah, I liked the cat!

    Guardian of the Red Butterfly is a standalone story, as well as part of a series.  The sequel, Guardian of  the Monarch Moon is already available, as is a D.S. Cuellar book with a separate storyline, Dead To Rights.  All three are available as e-books at Amazon, as well as paperbacks.  

Excerpts...

    “I need you to connect me to Captain Frank Morrell.”

    Steven observed a startled reaction in Karina’s body language at the mention of the name.

    Karina spoke in a hushed voice.  “Frank Morrell was one of the names I saw on my husband’s files.  Victor only kept a file on you for one of two reasons; either Frank is a sworn enemy or he is corruptible.”

    “Hello, this is Captain Morrell.”

    In a hesitant voice Steven said, “Hey, Dad, I think I need your help.”  (pg. 39)

    “What is it about this sword?”

    “This sword may not have any meaning to you but it is one of three swords that represent our family’s legacy.  To have the set restored as one would be a priceless treasure.”  Aiko gave Kyle a heartfelt look.  “Until you find what gives your life meaning, you too will be lost.”  (pg. 212)

“If you don’t officially exist, who’s going to miss you when you’re gone?”  (pg. 207)

    For all the positives, Guardian of the Red Butterfly also has some issues that can't be overlooked.  Most notable is the editing, which, to be blunt, is atrocious.  There are wrong words, misspelled words, paragraphs aren’t indented, and commas and semicolons are abused.  I  don't usually mention these things, since indie authors rarely have the luxury of professional editors to peruse their manuscript.  But here the frequency of these errors was distracting.

    Similarly, the book could do with a fresh round of proofreading.  Eye colors change and some of the fight scene details seemed hard to fathom.  Ditto for the never-any-fun task of polishing the manuscript: inserting info dumps into the tale smoothly, and improving the telling/showing ratio.

    All of this is fixable, and I certainly hope it is done before the next edition of Guardian of the Red Butterfly comes out.  This is a good first effort by a promising new writer; it just needs some rough edges sanded down.

    6 Stars.  Add 2 stars if-and-when an updated version of the book is developed.  I have heard rumors that it is in the works.