Miguel's Gift

February 6, 2017
Kading’s clear-eyed first novel follows the career path of Nick Hayden, who joins the investigation division of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Chicago in 1987. Hayden’s secret motivation is to learn the truth behind a 1974 shooting that involved three INS agents and one civilian. One agent was killed, another was fired, and the third retired a year after he fatally shot the civilian. As an untested rookie, Hayden—along with his partner, Tom Kane—hits factories employing immigrants with no papers or false papers, enforcing a policy that the cynical Kane explains benefits everybody but the agents and the “illegals.” Hayden becomes what INS veteran Charlie McCloud calls a gladiator, who feels above the law. Hayden eventually cracks the wall of silence around the 1974 case, but he also busts illegal Miguel Chavez, who becomes an informant and who, along with his family, will transform Hayden’s life. Kading, who worked for the INS, handles the nitty-gritty of arrests, infighting among criminals, and politics well, but it’s the transformation of Hayden that most impresses.

February 1, 2017
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent uncovers what was really behind the arrest of an illegal immigrant that went awry.With 26 years of experience as an agent for the FBI, Environmental Protection Agency, and INS, author Kading delivers a debut thriller that, initially at least, promises a timely angle in its subject, illegal immigration. An opening prologue becomes the crux of the case: on patrol in Chicago in 1974, INS agents spot a Peruvian who appears to be, in agency vernacular, a "wet," or illegal immigrant. In the violent scuffle that ensues, the suspect is shot dead; but so, too, is one of the officers, and by his own gun. Thirteen years later, new agent Nick Hayden arrives at Chicago INS headquarters with "callowness in [his] eyes." Hayden works with 54-year-old Joe Willis, a hardened veteran who greets the rookie with something between "indifference and outright hostility." The pairing seldom moves beyond the schematic to develop the men's characters more fully. Hayden, in particular, is only sketched in as a law school dropout who's put his personal life on hold until he becomes a top agent. He also remains off scene for long stretches while Kading works in routine and familiar subplots that could be interchanged with any number of other thrillers. Chief among them is one that follows Salvador Rico, who traffics in counterfeit green cards, sparking a turf war among gangsters profiteering from the wave of immigrants arriving in Chicago. With the appearance of each new character, Hayden follows a by-the-numbers approach that turns to expository flashbacks that put a drag on momentum and, as written, do a lot more showing than telling. The plot remains largely unfocused for a good third of the book until attention shifts back to Hayden who, it appears, is certain the 1974 killing masks a major coverup. As he joins with the eponymous Miguel to uncover the story behind the shootout, the second half of the book gains drive and momentum. A long and winding road.

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