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Santa Cruz Sentinel
One of our Own
By Chris Watson - Bookends
James Kruger announces the publication of his novel Beach Street, available online at www.authorhouse.com.
A former newspaper editor in San Francisco and San Jose, as well as the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Kruger, an Aptos resident has written a story that eerily mirrors downtown Santa Cruz today. Scene by scene, Kruger describes the many types of "undesirables" found in the small community known as Surf City. The mentally disturbed, those addicted to drugs and alcohol, war veterans suffering from stress all occupy the area, as the homeless population swells; Kruger writes, when the economy takes a dive. Into this distressed situation, Kruger drops a series of unexplained deaths. Aspiring reporter Pam Palmer investigates and in doing so, alienates powerful members of the Chamber of Commerce.
Retired after more than 40 years in journalism, Kruger proves he's got the knack for meshing true fact with vivid storytelling. Locals will enjoy.
The Carmel Pine Cone
It all happens on Monterey Bay
By Margot Petit Nichols - The Bookshelf
James Kruger is a 40-year veteran of the news trade, having worked as a copy editor in Minneapolis, night editor in San Francisco, city editor of the Santa Cruz Sentinel, and wire editor of the San Jose Mercury.
It is always a pleasure reviewing novels written by journalists: One knows the grammar, punctuation and spelling are going to be perfect, and all the sentences are going to make sense. It's the plots that have to be scrutinized. Kruger spent 10 years as city editor of the Santa Cruz Sentinel and has lived in nearby towns since 1963—all of which provide the background for Beach Street, a novel about a city editor in a seaside university town. The multi-layered plot deals with lifestyles of the homeless as opposed to drug-taking dropouts, rabble rousers in the guise of do-gooders, those who look down their noses at the less fortunate, and the truly caring and concerned. Mix in the murder of a street person, the vituperative naggings of a publisher, a town divided in its loyalties, a blossoming love affair, and the appearance of a heretofore unknown daughter of the newsman, an undergraduate journalism major conducting an undercover investigation of the murder—and the outcome is a gripping novel.
Protagonist of this murder mystery is newspaper editor Carl Grafton who lives by himself in a beach cottage in Surf City. It is he who must face the vindictiveness of his publisher, a former lover, townspeople who are turning to vigilantism against a serial killer, his readers on both sides of the local political fence who accuse him of being biased, and his daughter who comes into his life in the guise of a street person. Grafton is a likeable and believable character (we just wish he didn't have Sue's last name), and it's difficult to dispel the visage of Lou Grant creeping in while reading this very likeable book that is an easy yet gripping read.
James Kruger, Author of Pennington's Patrimony, Welcome Are Lands, Stranger in the Mirror, The Secret Files of Moshe Shomier, Tiger Lily, The Bachelor Portraits, and Beach Street. James Kruger, Author of Pennington's Patrimony, Welcome Are Lands, Stranger in the Mirror, The Secret Files of Moshe Shomier, Tiger Lily, The Bachelor Portraits, and Beach Street.
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