Lora R. Strong. Granite and Gloss. LR Strong, 2024.

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Granite & Gloss by L.R. Strong
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I recall when Twilight was released. I was teaching high school English, and girls who were readers—and even a few who were not—loved the book. I recall reading an article analyzing why the novel and its sequels were so popular, especially with teenaged girls.

Its conclusion was that the heroine Bella was a smart, strong girl, but Edward was physically stronger and, hence, a protector, but he was also tender and considerate of her. He truly cared for her. In spite of certain behaviors because he was a vampire, he was an ideal lover and the Bella-Edward relationship was nearly perfect. And isn’t that what we all are looking for?

Granite and Gloss has no vampires. If one were to categorize it, one would call it a survival story/romance. But its effect is not unlike that of the Twilight stories: an intelligent, strong female protagonist meets a physical “hunk” who protects and cares for her.

Tarina Gloss is an up-and-coming young artist. She is petite but wiry. Besides creating paintings and sculptures, she loves animals and regularly jogs. Her father is a Silicon Valley CEO. She admits that some of her success is due to who her father is. Still, she is to meet with one of the richest men in Silicon Valley, Douglas McCavent, to discuss a statue for the courtyard of his California office (his company has offices all over the world).

Meanwhile, Jake Granite is an ex-cop private contractor. He spends a lot of time at the gym and also is a big fan of parkour. His law enforcement background concerned organized crime. The company he is working for has been hired to help infiltrate and break up an international crime ring whose leader is called Pharaoh. They think they have enough evidence to arrest Pharaoh if they can locate him. Word is that he is also going to be at McCavent’s offices at the same time Tarina is there.

Tarina arrives at her appointment with McCavent while Jake is surveilling the office. However, McCavent’s bodyguards abduct Tarina. Jake witnesses this and tries to intervene. The two of them are outnumbered, bound, and taken by car to an airplane. Immediately, then, there is lots of action and mystery. What is going on? Is this businessman Pharaoh? Why has Tarina been kidnapped? It’s not as if McCavent needs any ransom money…

Things get even more complicated as the plane crashes somewhere in a snowy mountain forest and Jake and Tarina are the only surivivors. Here is where the story gets interesting and different.

Jake is street-smart. He admits he could survive on the streets if he has to, but survive in a wilderness? Still, he can build fires and otherwise knows how to keep warm.

Tarina has two very distinctive traits. One is that she has a strong gift of discernment of spirits (see I Corinthians 12:10 KJV). She can sense things about people and has learned to rely on the Holy Spirit’s direction. The second could be considered a blessing or a white elephant. She has synesthesia.

As an English teacher, I knew the term synesthesia as a figure of speech when one uses one sense to describe something perceived by a different sense. For example, in Sara Teasdale’s poem “There Shall Come Soft Rains,” a line describes “swallows circling with their shimmering sound.”

Now shimmering is something perceived by sight but here the word is used to describe a sound. If you know what swallows sound like as they twitter, and often are seen flying over water, the adjective makes sense. The twittering sound is quickly uttered as swallows constantly change direction, not unlike the way sunlight shimmers on the water’s surface. It is an unusual combination, but it gets us to see things in a different and clever way.

However, there is also a psychological condition known as synesthesia, in which a person perceives things using a different sense. Most commonly, the person perceives sounds or the sense of touch in terms of color. That describes Tarina. For example, when a wintery wind begins to blow, she calls it a scarlet wind.

This is where things go in an unexpected direction. Yes, this is a survival story. The two protagonists do manage to not only survive the crash but finally escape the snowy forest. But it turns into a real psychological tale as well.

Jake is tough and cynical. I recall reading years ago that it is hard to bear witness to policemen and journalists because both occupations are used to people lying. Still, because Jake has dealt with drug addicts and criminals and their children, he recognizes that synesthesia usually results from some kind of trauma.

Tarina has been raised in a very good home with great parents. However, she was adopted at the age of two, and naturally has no memory of what might have happened before then.

Without going into too much detail, Jake is able to help Tarina begin to see her “gift” in a new way and understand a little bit more about why she reacts in unusual ways to things that do not upset most people. At the same time, Tarina begins to help Jake face up to his own hardness, cynicism, and internal pain. Yes, this is a survival story, but the main plot of the story has to do with mental health rather than physical health.

Without going into too much detail it becomes clear that McCavent reminds us of Jeffrey Epstein. Because he is killed in the plane crash, it is not entirely clear why Tarina was abducted. After all, she was not some anonymous prostitute or trafficked child, and people knew whom she was going to see. Since Granite and Gloss is to be the first in a series, perhaps we will learn more about that mystery in a future book. In the meantime enjoy the unusual survival tale and the more unusual psychological and spiritual adventure.