“Sometimes life does not play fair.”

Alfie Carter by BJ Mayo is an intriguing story that will shred your heart and then knit it back together with threads of love, compassion, forgiveness, and healing. Alfie Carter is laced with Christian references and prayer and relies heavily on the theme of following God’s ultimate plan for each of us, encouraging us all to pursue and accept our unique purposes in life.

Two stories are told in parallel throughout most of the book before colliding together in spectacular fashion at the end. The scenes are set, and the main characters are developed slowly and deliberately, with gentle care and thought. In Spring, Texas, Alfie Carter is in law enforcement and finds himself investigating a young girl’s alleged suicide by hanging. Something is off about this girl’s death, however, and Alfie “Bulldog” Carter is on the case. Unfortunately, all is not right in Alfie’s personal life as he continues to struggle with the loss of his infant daughter twenty years prior. Nothing will ever heal that pain of losing a child, and the constant agonizing ache continues to push him further from his wife, Bea, creating a heartbreaking gap that widens with each passing year.

Jackaleena is a young girl in Africa who witnesses the slaughter of her entire village, including her parents. Homeless, orphaned, and fearing for her life, she finds her way to a place of refuge, Benguela by the Sea, where a kind woman, Margaret, teaches her English and all about Jesus. Jackaleena’s impromptu journey to the United States is entertaining and filled with adventure and introduces one of my favorite minor yet important characters, Rufus Obediah. While the roads for Jackaleena and Alfie are fraught with pain and uncertainty, discovering their journeys are well worth the reader’s time and tears.

BJ Mayo’s writing is down to earth and simple yet earnestly wrapped up tight in the human emotions of loss, love, and mercy. Jackaleena’s and Alfie’s stories are not uncommon, but the author presents these two in a way that makes them feel exclusive and almost solitary until both open themselves to God and to others who only want to love them. The overall pacing is a bit slow, but life-changing events often do not happen in a flash but rather over time and even across continents. The build up to the conclusion is worth the wait because that ending will soften even the hardest of hearts.

A takeaway of Alfie Carter is that we are all connected in some fashion. People cross our paths for a reason and often impact our lives profoundly and forever. Jackaleena and Alfie each have a purpose to fulfill and a life filled with love to live, and even though these events in Alfie Carter take a little while to come to fruition, the slow anticipation and the eventual healing are exquisite.