SCOUT’S HONOR

Eddie Kawadsky was driving a VW Bus filled with a sizable amount of cocaine through a border checkpoint. His nerves were frayed and he contemplated how his friend Roy Cross talked him into such a dangerous venture. Eddie had been working at a local inn/spa with hopes of joining the Air Force. Eddie and Roy had been friends going back to their childhood, where Eddie was the well-mannered kid and Roy was the black sheep.

As Eddie toiled for his earnings, Roy was driven by the allure of the quick score. Roy has a relationship with a Colombian narco, which could prove lucrative. Roy had coordinated previous border crossings through a relative and gotten through with no issues. However, this connection has informed Roy that he’s about to leave his job and Roy will soon be out of luck. Roy decides to enlist Eddie in one last big haul.

For Eddie, the possibility of making a lot of money for minimal effort looks promising. Yet, Roy initially tells him that he’d be hauling marijuana in the van and that he’d be there on the day of the act. When Eddie takes possession of the drug-laden VW, he’s hauling fifty kilos of cocaine and Roy is in a Mexican jail.

Eddie is able to talk his way through the checkpoint, but is soon alarmed when he is pulled over by local law enforcement and ordered out of the car. A plan has been put in motion to seize the cocaine and execute Eddie, but Eddie turns the table on the corrupt cops and guns them down in self-defense.

In the wake of this horrible incident, Eddie heads for the East Coast and adopts a new identity. As Roy sits in a Mexican jail and learns about Eddie and the drugs, he knows he’s in deep and on the hook to the narcos. With the disappearance of Eddie Kawadsky, a new man has appeared named Richard Austen Jr.

Scout’s Honor is a dramatic narrative infused with white-knuckle moments of action. The idea of escaping one’s past is the primary theme as Eddie desperately strives to put as much distance between himself and a double homicide in California. Eddie trusts Roy almost blindly and to his detriment as the circumstances soon prove.

The passage of time doesn’t allow Eddie’s conscience to absolve him of his guilt, so many of his actions are reflective of this feeling. As Eddie became Richard and his life took a positive turn, he still wants to atone for his past. He possesses a moral code that contrasts with the amorality of Roy. Author John McNellis has authored a rewarding novel about friendship, love, and redemption.