NOT GUILTY, by C. Lee McKenzie, A Book Review by Pat Garcia

Not Guilty introduces you to Devon Carlyle and the unexpected events that change his destiny and his way of thinking forever.  Carlyle’s mind is on winning the state championship and maybe becoming the best basketball player ever at his school in his upcoming senior year.  His expectations have a sequential order of importance; a basketball scholarship, his best friend, and his new girlfriend, whom he loves dearly.

Leaving the stage of adolescent and moving swiftly toward early adulthood presents challenges and confrontations that test his belief system. Devon Carlyle is shocked at the injustice of justice as everything that he believes turns upside down. His hope of drawing the attention of the basketball scouts dwindle.  His cherry-filled life, where abundance overflows, becomes a nightmare.

He soon discovers that friends in good times are not friends in bad times. That the stardom of being the most talented basketball player brings out hidden jealousies from others and that the loyalty that he expects from his girlfriend cannot stand the pressure of an erroneous mistake that affects his entire family.

How do you handle the sharp arrows of mistrust, indiscretion, and doubt?

Has Devon Carlyle been condemned for the rest of his life?

The author keeps the tension high.  She has woven an eloquent tale of a young man rising from the blindness of a rose-colored, happy go lucky society to a young man who finds meaningfulness and three new best friends in an unlikely place.

Not Guilty, a book you will not regret reading.

Shalom aleichem,

Pat Garcia