Book characters caught in a storm of emotions gone astray: Ron Willow, well on his way to wealth and prosperity, he stumbled on his escape from a traumatic past. Pedro Martillo, the man realizing the American Dream. Model employee, lucky in love, and strong like someone out of Muscle Beach. But is loving-too-much a reason to suffer unspeakably? Bonita Burns, ambitious, ivory-skinned, raised like a model to imitate the life of the Rich and Famous. Are these sufficient reasons for her punishment? Mario Ricardo: Dressed in polo shirts and well-pressed slacks, debonair, svelte, sociable, with a full head of wavy dark hair with elegant side touches of grey. He could be bought with sex and money. Butch Snyper, he shouldn't be demonized for an indifference to extreme suffering product of his parents neglect and a chronic drug habit. Lazar Morpheus, his addiction to children ruined his life and sent him into a spiral of orgy and crime. Bobby Torino-pizza face-scared in body and soul by his father's beatings, learned from a pro and put the lessons into practice before he turned 18. Clyde Needles. Junk food and adulterated liquor had changed his appearance. He gained weight. His chiseled, youthful anatomy deteriorated into a caricature of himself ten years later; cheeks, puffy and swollen; once flat stomach, a belly pouch protruding through an oversized shirt; his muscular legs, now hairy cedar logs bumpy with cellulite. Baby-face Lolita, eighteen, could pass for fifteen, but was more precautious than any 21-year old.