Surviving the mean streets of New Orleans in 1956, young Tim Kelly begins a young Indiana Jones style adventure by lying about his age to join the Coast Guard at fourteen.

Almost a decade later, Kelly transfers to San Francisco where he immediately runs afoul of his new executive officer. In lieu of a court martial Kelly volunteers for combat duty in Vietnam where three of his friends are killed in a friendly fire incident. Deeply mourning the loss of his friends, he releases his rage in an Air Force officer's club and is punished with a less than honorable discharge.

Back in the U.S. Kelly embarks on a new career as an undercover narcotics agents, entering the shadow world of drug and human trafficking sponsored by his old friend Rodolfo Guzman, a kingpin in the powerful Campeche drug cartel. His failure to check in with his handler alerts a team of Texas lawmen who embark on an illegal, clandestine, armed incursion into the sovereign territory of Mexico to rescue Tim, or recover his body. It is a bold and dangerous plan. Will the rescue team arrive in time? See Point Deception by Jim Gilliam.

 Most authors of fiction disclaim their characters are not representative of any persons living or deceased, for liability protection.  However, Jim Gilliam has his own DNA mapped into his main character Tim Kelly, in his suspense novel, Point Deception.  Having enrolled in the U.S. Coast Guard at the underage of 14 by lying about his date of birth and continuing after military service a parallel career in law enforcement, both Gilliam and Kelly have much in common.  But the similarities stop there, as his book brings the reader into a story of an emotional and riveting tale of fictional incidents, events and intrigue; boldly heightened by Jim Gilliam’s immense first-hand knowledge of his subject matter.

Nobody’s perfect. That’s how Jim Gilliam developed his protagonist Tim Kelly, as he equivocated him between sound moral judgments and anti-social behavior; revealing a depth in complexity associated with real people instead of stereo-typical fictional characters.  So too is Gilliam’s style of writing; using precise vernacular of military terms and procedures known commonly to those who served in the armed forces and law enforcement, adding realism and credibility to the fictional plot.  Interestingly, Jim Gilliam also toys with the timeline of his book in a way of starting with a torture scene gripping the reader’s attention, then carrying him back into the life of Tim Kelly explaining the personal characteristics that comprise the ending, which is set in the beginning.  These techniques, along with a high level of respect for the reader’s intelligence, result in Point Deceptionachieving the many accolades from much of the reading community, which it rightfully deserves.