For an adventure writer, the advantages of doing this are obvious. In The Kundalini Equation (1986), for example, Barnes did this with martial arts guru Savagi. In a number of books, Barnes has employed the device of a crucial, powerful figure who is kept off-screen for some reason. Marcus was a Black war hero and entrepreneur, who had been entertaining political ambitions before mysterious circumstances cut his career short. As he does so, he interweaves an ambivalent parable of heroism and violence, the story of the mysterious Alexander Marcus. Barnes tells the story of a group of very special children, a handful of mature adults, several striking and heroic senior citizens, families, workplaces, and the town of Vancouver, Washington. To start with, one of the first things that Charisma does well is build a complex narrative, and even that statement is unfair to the novel.

I don't want to spoil any of Charisma's mysteries for the reader, who should be allowed to enjoy them for himself, but there is a lot that can be said about the novel without tipping Barnes's hand. I burned through the book's 380 pages that evening, turning every page till the last one, and wishing for more of this contemporary thriller. The next chapter opens with a jump across time, geography, and race, but also with a confident voice honed through decades of writing. By the time Barnes ends this preface with tragic finality, he has created a cluster of mysteries, any one of which would be enough to capture a reader's interest. through her eyes, in ways that transform its disintegrating neighborhoods into landscapes of wonder, family, and adventure. Barnes not only makes Evans' sheer exuberance come to life with consummate ease, he also shows us L.A. Barnes opens with a scene in which we follow thirteen year old Tanesha Evans through the streets of contemporary Los Angeles. I hasten to add that just the opposite is true. The term 'commentary' is a bit threatening, making it sound like Charisma is clogged by chunks of didactic exposition.

Charisma, his most recent novel, raises his thrillers to another level of complexity, and offers in the process Barnes's most direct commentary on all of these subjects. In later works, such as Blood Brothers (1996), Barnes continued to write intense thrillers, but wound in examinations of the meanings of race, family, and heritage. In Streetlethal (1983), Barnes gave us Aubry Knight, the ultimate martial artist, sidetracked from his goal of winning a zero gravity combat title through a series of tense complications. However, in his intense early novels, his ambitions were tightly focused. Steven Barnes has always been an ambitious writer.

Streetlethal by Steven Barnes