Review by Best Selling Author Alex Smith. Wow!

"Kelsey’s Crossing by David Randal is a sort of redemption arc with a religious flavor. We follow the life of Greg Smith—once a lawyer by education, a political operative by profession, and an expert dealmaker by genius—who is caught manipulating elections in the country. He is sentenced, brokers a deal by naming his co-conspirators, receives a reduced sentence, and is eventually pardoned. However, all of this serves only as a prelude to the key events of the story.

Even in jail, he is portrayed as a changed man. After his release, he decides to leave his old life behind.

Now, he lives a quiet, secret life on a boat and volunteers at Kelsey Rescue Mission on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The mission is a shelter for the homeless, and the people there don’t know that the friendly stranger serving them food is an ex-con.

I personally found this mission to be a beautiful thing (though I don’t know why all the discussion about the mission focused only on men and not also on women and children). The mission doesn’t just offer passive assistance; instead, the people it helps must work toward regaining independence by finding jobs.

Those who aren’t yet ready for employment must take up responsibilities within the mission. If such missions can help even a single life, isn’t it worth having such places? I think most of us would say yes—though we might also prefer that shelters weren’t located near our own homes. This is the classic NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) syndrome.

And that is exactly the situation here. The city’s rich, affluent, and powerful don’t want the shelter nearby. It reminds me of something I read online the other day: most of us are far closer to homelessness than to being billionaires. The disheartening stories in this book only reinforce that observation. Often, these people didn’t start as homeless but somehow fell through the cracks of society—failing to pay rent for a while, losing a job, etc. And when that happened, they either lacked a support system or the support system failed them. Aren’t these the same risks many of us face?

While I don’t particularly care for the book’s religious undertones, I do believe that caring for the poorest is our collective responsibility:

“This wealthy nation was ignoring one of its most embarrassing flaws, and here, in a small city in Tennessee—part of the old South—we would display to the nation that homelessness was a problem we all owned and had to solve. I thought of the dozens of times I had walked past a homeless person sleeping in the doorway of a building and ignored their pleas for food or money.”

Coming back to the story—Greg seems content with his changed persona, but then comes a twist: the mission and its very existence are in danger. He must use his skills as a former political operative and dealmaker to help save it by securing a public referendum in its favor. From being a quiet volunteer, he suddenly finds himself leading the charge. Later, a shooting incident adds another dramatic turn to the events.

In short, Kelsey’s Crossing is a powerful story that proves people can change—and change for the better. Greg’s is not the only redemption arc in the book; it also advocates for second chances for those who have gone astray, whether due to a moral failing or an inability to meet the harsh demands of the material world.

I wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone."

Find Alex's Books at https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B08FF4BC64?ingress=0&visitId=a6014c57-a9a9-426e-9923-db9356a80358&ccs_id=8ff6262b-b332-4483-a66c-28f72f8bb7e2