Evil Eats Good

It may look like a paradise but actually it is a jungle where evil constantly eats good. It is all part of the food chain that dictates the feral law of the land.

Platitudes is a posh rehab facility on the Caribbean island of Saint Augustine. Founded by one of rock’s greatest guitarist who not only wanted to give back, but, also, wanted to garner a generous tax write off. The center is overseen by an over-thinking and haunted ex-addict. Elliot is nearing his retirement and is clearly overwhelmed when his newest client, an opioid addict, is an ex-president’s 19-year-old son. This situation catapults Elliot into chipping codeine which ushers him into a duplicitous demise. He seeks a salvation that the Twelve Steps cannot provide.

The intrigue revolving within the treatment center is the centrifuge of society. A dipsomaniac Russian scientist pontificates his nihilistic outlook to a coked-out communist who is the daughter of a capo of a Columbian cartel. She, in turn, is the domineering paramour to the ex-president’s son. The noose around Elliot’s neck only grows more taut by the Saint Augustine government dictating a field on the facility’s property be used as a depot to refuel prop planes transporting contraband. All this explodes in Elliot’s face when the ex-president comes to visit.

I ALWAYS KNEW when to get out of the car.

The day after I completed my third-year medical exams, I decided to drop mescaline. I was riding in the backseat of a convertible with a group of friends listening to top forty radio. I distinctly remember it was the release date of “Get Back” and “Don’t Let Me Down.” Those two songs were the latest oracles from the Beatles, and therefore it was only a matter of time before they would be internalized in all of us.

It was a sun-fringed day in May, and the flat green Illinois countryside stretched out to the horizon bracketed by telephone poles and trees. John Lennon was agonizing about whether Yoko Ono would let him down or not. But even with the car’s top down I was getting claustrophobic. I told the driver to let me out and I would walk the six miles into town, and I was glad that I did because in town the car was stopped by the cops. And that would have been bad for me because I was tripping, and I had been busted for pot the year before.

That goes to show you what kind of addict I was, which is why later on, I became such an effective alcohol and drug consular.

Right now, I am nearing retirement from my labors as an administrator at a resort, no I mean, an exclusive recovery facility, here in the Caribbean island of St. Augustine. Platitudes (you might have heard of it) is part of a chain of clinics founded by one of rock’s premier musicians, who upon achieving sobriety wanted to give back.

Naturally there has always been controversy attached to this place because we admitted a certain celebrity or a cartel relative who needed the Twelve Steps. But nothing, I mean, nothing prepared me for the day when the US Secret Service entered the compound and delivered the former US president’s 18-year-old son, who was addicted to heroin as well as OxyContin.

That was the day when I wondered how I could ever egress the car.

December 22, 2021

Evil Eats Good is a book to savor. With strong character development and pithy dialogue, James takes the reader on a fictional journey about addiction, sobriety and love. As I closed the book on the final page, I thought, "I can't wait for the sequel!"

Shelli Sloan

As a former Director of a substance abuse facility, I have a more vested interest and perspective in the subject matter. So when I found this new work to be an all to realistic, energetic page turner with both the laugh out loud comedy of deception and the horrible tragedies that I often found associated in rehabilitation, I was delighted. I thoroughly enjoyed the added aspects of the ripped from the headlines characters and the twists and turns of love and life which make this an important work of fiction.

I. Michael Land

“Evil Eats Good” reminds one of the wistful ironies that Graham Greene so artfully conjured. Pathologically entertaining!

Betsy Nowrasteh

James Trivers has outdone himself with EVIL EATS GOOD. His riveting prose, head spinning plot, and insight of human nature gives us a masterful and exciting read, once again.

Natalija Nogulich