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Reviewed by Christian Sia for Readers' Favorite
I Was Compelled by Ken Gorman is a psychological thriller that tells the story of Drew Baxter, a decorated Iraq War veteran. He struggles with survivor’s guilt and PTSD, and his compulsive need to help others. He is unable to get over the attack in Fallujah in which he lost his buddies, and now his life spirals into addiction and psychiatric care. While he attends therapy with Dr. Burkett to fix his life, the mayor arranges a job for him in Barnegat Junction. Drew uses his instincts to discover a web of corruption in the Administration: kickbacks, fraud, and shady land deals orchestrated by Mayor Jorgenson and his fixer, Billy Wilcox. Angie Carswell, his love interest, and FBI Agent Walsh help Drew, who becomes a whistleblower, leading to the exposure of the fraud. Meanwhile, his romantic connection with Angie grows stronger, but can it help him reclaim his life and also find redemption?
Ken Gorman crafts a compelling hero in Drew Baxter, a deeply flawed character who wins the reader’s sympathy with his “compulsive helping” disorder, which brings about his greatest troubles and noblest acts. The book cleverly exposes Drew’s psyche and what trauma can do to a person. Villains like Wilcox and Jorgenson are also fully drawn, and I enjoyed how the author uses these two characters to inject tension into the story, externalizing the conflict. I Was Compelled is well-paced, and the author uses flashbacks to explore the military trauma while deftly developing small-town legal drama and political intrigue. Drew’s introspections illuminate the writing, and the dialogue creates drama, capturing the anxious, colloquial, and earnestly moral tones that make the narrative even more authentic. This book offers a good redemption story.
