Indie review of New Texas Fiction<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

El Paso novelist James O\u2019Keeffe\u2019s second book, Radio Frontera!<\/i>, is an entertaining, darkly comic, twist-filled tale that unfolds in several locations, including California, El Paso, and the studio of a Mexican \u201cborder blaster\u201d radio station, XAMO.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In the mid-1980s, XAMO has fallen on hard times after being a global force in early rock\u2019n\u2019roll radio. Its massive and illegal 500,000-watt signal could previously be heard on AM radios across the planet. Now, amid a global recession and toughened broadcast laws, XAMO has been forced to sharply reduce its transmitter power. The weakened station barely pays its electric bills, phone bills, employees, and music licensing fees. Yet, it still has distant and local listeners who call in with special song requests and has disc jockeys with fake names who play records and dispense music trivia to keep fans entertained.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, one of XAMO\u2019s nighttime DJs, \u201cMandy,\u201d is widely known for her seductive voice and rock music knowledge. Her real name, however, is Elfa Schultz. She\u2019s a communications undergraduate at the University of Texas at El Paso. She sneaks across the border nightly to do her Hipstress of the Night<\/i> radio show, sometimes with help from Shaw Jepsen, a friendly U.S. Border Patrol agent who likes to hear her play the song \u201cI Fought the Law.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Elfa\u2019s life suddenly changes when a young man who uses several aliases is hired to work at XAMO. Asher \u201cAsh\u201d Rede does not tell Elsa his real name, nor reveal that he thinks he knows her from a brief encounter in childhood that caused him to develop a lingering crush on her. He also does not let her know\u2014yet\u2014that he has been one of the frequent callers to her radio show. Indeed, over time, Ash has convinced her via telephone from California that he is someone completely different than she now thinks. Elfa, as \u201cMandy,\u201d has helped Ash create and perfect his own fake radio personality, \u201cStrummer,\u201d and he has been taking part in her show, supposedly dialing in from Surrey, England, and gaining fans. She doesn\u2019t yet know that he\u2019s now at XAMO with her, learning how to be a disc jockey.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The novel soon takes darker directions. Murder, revenge, gang connections, family secrets, and other plot twists emerge while the author skillfully maintains a steady story pace and modulates his taut sentences with engaging word rhythms. For example: <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Ash looked out the window, shocked but unsure how to feel. He\u2019d never known anyone who\u2019d been murdered before. He pictured Shaw\u2019s cocksure grin, the hat and sunglasses, the pampered mustache. There was no picturing him dead; for that matter, there was no picturing him ever being born. Guys like Shaw Jepsen didn\u2019t proceed through the normal stages of birth, childhood, adolescence, and the rest. No beginning, no end. They just existed.\u201d<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Keeffe also demonstrates a knack for blending scene-enhancing details and humor. For instance, describing a key moment at a minor character\u2019s funeral, he writes:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>The paper streamers fluttered softly from the saucer-shaped air ducts in the cloistered heat. There was the abrupt sense that the funeral service had exceeded its rightful hour, that the late, great Reverend Doctor\u2019s memory had been duly honored, thank you very much; and now enough was enough.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Radio Frontera!<\/span><\/i> cleverly broadcasts James O\u2019Keeffe\u2019s new fiction from a fresh setting that should appeal to many readers: a Mexican radio station where even the receptionist is armed, and almost everyone is trying to hide some secrets.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indie review of New Texas Fiction<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[870,813,830,1410],"class_list":["post-2673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lonestarindiereview","tag-lone-star-literary-life","tag-lonestarliterarycom","tag-radiofrontera"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}