Nothing in real life is black and white. We all live in the gray space in between. In The Redemption: Bloody Palms (Volume 1), author Matthew A. Pagan unleashes a story that pushes the boundaries between right, wrong, black, and white. It is a fantastical story, but it is plausible in today's world where the unfortunate are given few choices. Pagan based his characters and their experiences on his own experiences and observations. He chose to write this story, the first in a series, to blow open the door to a world that is traditionally closed. The door is shut by those who live in the circumstances Pagan describes and also by those who would rather not know about that world. This story deserves to be told, and Pagan's telling makes for an exciting, dangerous adventure into a dodgy realm. Living in a world that is rife with the dangerous outcomes of home invasions, robberies, and drug trade, people make connections that are regularly tested. Crosses, double-crosses, murder, rape-these are all pieces of the landscape in which Matt, Naomi, Pressure, and their cohorts reside. Matt is the leader of a crime ring that participates mainly in home invasions. The work is dangerous, illegal, and unethical. There is bound to be trouble, and there is when Matt invades Pressure's home. Pressure's wife Naomi becomes a target when Matt seeks to manipulate Pressure. Complications ensue, and a series of twists and turns take the characters and the reader on a complex and riotous journey. The author writes about a world of crime-not a world in which crime is a thought-out plan or a desire to manipulate the system. The world of crime Pagan writes about is one in which the combatants are born into the life-a warlike, eat-or-be-eaten life. Do it to someone else before it happens to you. Make money and survive however you can, with whatever you have in front of you. The raw materials that Pagan's characters have to work with are robbery, drugs, murder, vendetta, and everything in between.