Book Review-Time Will Tell

Time Will Tellby Jamina MarcusCategory: Fiction / Mystery378 pages; ISBN: 0964946505In San Lucas County, women are threatened, battered, raped, and murdered--events not uncommon in other communities but nonetheless these occurrences are not welcome. The area Health Department is up in arms about what to do to bring to light this problem of violence when along comes a determined savior in the form of Eli Lucard, whose flair for salesmanship and grant writing quickly springboards him to the head of the newly formed Injury Awareness Program. From there it is on to more government grants, more publicity for the plight of domestic violence (and his work), more respect, more attention from female colleagues, a perk that does not bother Eli one bit.What his colleagues do not know, however, is that Eli is part of the problem. His penchant for knife play, plus the physical and mental bruises bestowed by him upon his wife Revo (known unaffectionately by Eli as Flat Thing) are proof of
the darker side of Eli's domineering behavior, and when Eli himself is found victim to a stomach-churning display of violence, Revo is naturally suspect. The reader will see, however, that considering the events leading up to Eli's demise, the identity of his killer is indeed a mystery.In Time Will Tell, Jamina Marcus weaves a series of tales together with fluid motion--lives that seem different are stitched into a patterned quilt of lies, love, and strength. We see the events unfold before us through two points of view : one an omniscient eye that introduces us to a diverse cast of characters, each illuminated by their personal quirks--Health Department worker Peg, whose explosive allergies give her a cartoonish quality; sullen fast-food employee Daniel--a misogynist at work on his own bible, a chilling treatise that makes David Koresh look like Mister Rogers; Eli's disgruntled boss, Warren Rudesby, and his trophy wife Nike, who yearns for more in her life besides being win
dow-dressing; Daniel's wife Dorelle, a meek yet tensile woman who learns to swallow her fears, and the athletic Kathleen Orion (known appropriately to everyone as K.O. ), the kung-fu instructor self-charged with thickening Revo's reserve and bravery.The other point of view is provided by Billie Ice, a woman as cool as her name whose feminist view of life sets the tone for the novel--that women need not be victims nor extensions of men. Billie is the embodiment of independence and love without boundaries, a love that befuddles her friend Andre--a symbol, perhaps, of the machismo lurking in most men who believe that a woman without a man is incomplete and that women who prefer women are seriously impaired.Regardless of who Billie chooses to date or what Andre and his wife Nise think of her sexual preference, what is important is that Billie is in need of work to support herself and her son. As luck would have it, Revo remembers Billie from their mutual kung-fu class and within
the week Billie is employed by the same Health Department where Eli is about to launch his plans--professional and personal. An intimate link with Revo puts Billie in a precarious position when Eli is unceremoniously murdered (a murder that some, when reading Time Will Tell, would deem justified), and she becomes to a certain extent Revo's protector and touchstone.Time Will Tell is an erotic, thought-provoking mystery of life that ponders the existence of violence--what leads people to exhibit this kind of behavior? This is exactly the kind of book one can read in front of the television (as I have been known to do with fast reads like Agatha Christie)--this is a book that requires total concentration and offers the reader a entrancing journey into the minds of madmen and the women who strive to conquer them.

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