A cult’s conspiracy, an ex-priest’s perfidy in Charlson Ong’s latest

Those that have learn Charlson Ong’s crime fiction novel Blue Angel, White Shadow will recall the fast-paced narrative and its “screwed-up cop” protagonist, the surprisingly likable detective Inspector Cyrus Ledesma.

Ledesma immerses himself within the seek for the assassin of a younger lounge singer, traversing Manila’s demimonde as he sifts via a bunch of probably and unlikely suspects. Ong handles dialogue with a deft contact—the stream of conversations are cinematic of their scope and really feel—and his prose is mellifluous, lyrical:

“He stopped to hear and breathe within the melody-like mist however it reminded him of a half-forgotten story and crammed him with such longing that he knew it was too quickly to low cost the piano participant. No, not but, he’d no less than have to listen to the entire tune.”

In his newest work, a thriller filled with intrigue and journey, the tune performs on as Ong returns to acquainted environment—the city wasteland of sin and squalor, recklessness and redemption. Dr. Chester Limhuatco aids Emily Mahiwo, a lounge singer (once more), who has fallen unconscious in a stampede. He acknowledges her because the “white girl” who haunts his desires.

That assembly results in his changing into embroiled in a thriller involving, amongst others, members of a Black Nazarene cult and its chief Jose “Tata Peping” Crenshaw, the son of a black soldier and a Filipina (the “Black Christ);” Gerard de Bruyne, white ex-priest gone native and referred to as the “White Igorot;” and Chester’s college good friend Jefferson Po, a authorities agent working to unravel the cult’s machinations.

In between expositions on the characters’ pasts and presents, the narrative jolts ahead – the cult pulls a disruptive stunt on the Traslacion; Chester and Jefferson are scorching on their heels to forestall them from doing extra hurt; the true menace erupts from de Bruyne.
The prose is advanced and dense, encompassing matters as numerous because the traditions of the Nazareno devotion, stent insertions, people drugs and spells, and Philippine spiritual historical past.

As in his earlier novel, Ong parades a various lineup of characters whose foibles and quirks make them extra sensible and relatable. By means of skillful characterization, the archetypes of the crime fighter, protagonist who unwittingly finds himself in a fraught state of affairs, damsel in misery, and villain are upended; there is no such thing as a black-and-white, solely a large spectrum of grey.

A number of of the characters are engaged on separate search quests as Ong faucets the Rizal motherlode of fiction for acquainted characters: Emily is on the lookout for her father, the previous priest Gerard de Bruyne; Chester is on the lookout for Emily, who he has misplaced observe of; Chester’s daughter Carmen, a tutorial dilettante, is trying to find her good friend and crush Roger Geisler, a Swedish anthropologist, and de Bruyne’s nephew; Emily’s mom Maria is on the lookout for her daughter; Po is on the lookout for the cult leaders; and de Bruyne is searching for nothing lower than the overthrow of the Catholic Church’s foundations within the nation.

As in actual life, a number of the characters are flawed; the poisonous masculinity of Chester and Jefferson are at instances onerous to bear, and intercourse intrudes in some characters’ minds at inappropriate moments, turning a number of the writing awkward.

Was Chester’s removing of Emily from the stampede a rescue or a kidnap, as a result of he brings her, with out her consent, to his condominium as a substitute of the hospital? Father De Bruyne muses as he appears to be like at Maria: “…her face was aglow and her breasts proud.” Emily, in a harmful state of affairs within the Brotherhood’s lair, sees Peping “half-naked” and thinks “…how properly constructed he was. He might have stepped out of a gladiator film and he or she felt her coronary heart racing like a wild stallion.” Chester, whereas performing open-heart surgical procedure on Emily, sees her “bare for the primary time” and feels “a jolt of electrical energy surge via him.” With the characters trapped in patriarchal modes of considering and habits, the novel portrays the messiness of actual life.

The convoluted plot is a problem to comply with. The cult and Crenshaw at first appear to be the story’s focus, however then it pivots to de Bruyne late within the novel, his plan to kill the Pope popping out of the sphere.

Ong maintains a excessive commonplace of writing all through. The sophistication of his prose shines brilliant as ever. His thoughts on the Wowowee-type stampede, Chester thinks: “…however these deaths…resulted solely from callousness, from crassness, from one other circus for the poor who might dream solely of sudden wealth, sudden redemption – like Dimas – and whose ache should cross as soon as the following circus or crucifixion hits city.”

The affected person reader will probably be rewarded with a story deeply rooted in Filipino-ness, in simply acknowledged social themes and points, some characters seemingly primarily based on precise personalities. The tune of town’s underbelly performs on.

Errata from the earlier column on Ebook Growth Affiliation of the Philippines’ board members: Honey de Peralta represents the Abroad Publishers’ Representatives Affiliation of the Philippines (OPRAP), and Dr. John Jack Wigley is an author-representative.

For feedback and suggestions, chances are you’ll attain the writer on Fb and Twitter: @DrJennyO

White Girl, Black Christ
By Charlson Ong
288 pages, Milflores Publishing, 2021
P549.00 // www.milflorespublishing.com