Trust Me by Richard Z. Santos

Trust Me is the debut suspense thriller from Richard Z. Santos with dueling stories of two men affected by the discovery of a mysterious skeleton on a construction site in New Mexico. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “Charles O'Connell is riding an epic losing streak. An unexpected offer to work in Santa Fe, New Mexico, doing public relations for a firm building the city's new airport feels like an opportunity to start fresh and make connections with powerful people out west. But when the construction crew unearths a skeleton, Charles' fresh start turns into another disaster. Gabriel Luna, one of the laborers present when the skeleton is unearthed, is willing to do just about anything to reconnect with his teenage son. Surrounded by deception on all fronts, including his own lies to himself and his wife, Charles falls into a whirlwind of fraud, betrayal and double crosses.”

The parallel stories involving Charles and Gabriel are both initiated with the surprise discovery of a mysterious skeleton at the construction site (maybe it’s the legendary Geronimo?), but Gabriel’s more compelling storyline has real stakes to sink your teeth into. It’s hard not to root for a guy who wants and tries to be a good father, even when life continually beats him down. He tries his best with the limited options he has even though most of those options are unmistakably bad choices. Charles, on the other hand, is just another rat on the corrupt vessel of Cody Branch’s duplicitous city “project.” It’s hard to feel sorry for him when he’s almost just as corrupt as the people he works for.

It takes a while for Santos’ story to rev up. But once it does—as the double-crosses and backstabbing decisions come flying almost two thirds of the way in as well as Gabriel’s descent down his hard road to redemption—it’s a hard story to put down. The two stories never really intersect, but their parallel paths have a compelling contrast. Santos is an author to watch. Let’s all hope we see his next novel very soon.

I enjoyed this book and I recommend it. I would give this novel 4 stars.

Buy the paperback on Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/152/9781558859043