How the Strong Survive

When four rape victims come to Ben Pace - a Lakhota healer - Ben is given the task to help these women seek justice while, at the same time, aid them in their healing process. Only at the beginning of his spiritual development as a healer, Ben isn’t sure how to help these women. After all, they are all white, and Ben is a Lakhota Sioux. After much thought and spiritual preparation, Ben comes up with a plan to help the women take back the power that the serial rapist stole from them. The action they take, however, does not work as Ben had expected it to. Some of the women seem better, some worse, but none of them is completely healed. Is it because they are white and Ben was using Lakhota ways? Though the women have suffered the same violation at the hands of the same perpetrator, the women have not reacted as Ben thought they would. And the serial rapist, despite Ben’s carefully planned strategy, is still at large, protected by his family’s tremendous wealth and political power.Is the difference in cultures the problem? Are Ben’s and the women’s cultural and spiritual beliefs at such odds with each other that no healing can occur? Is the conflict between the cultures too great for Ben and the victims to cross the chasm and reach what they all seek: justice and healing. In powerful writing and vivid descriptions that allow us a glimpse into the world of Lakhota beliefs and spirituality, Newton Love has given us a twist on the detective novel. Ben Pace is not Sherlock Holmes. Ben is a detective who is Lakhota, human, imperfect, but, according to Lakhota ways, honorable. With memorable characters, an exciting plot, and stimulating dialogue, Love has created a new kind of detective while exploring the conflict between the Lakhota Way and other cultures’ Ways.