Until recently retiring to write full time, Pamela Binnings Ewen was a partner in the Houston office of the international law firm of Baker Botts, L.L.P., specializing in corporate finance. She now lives just outside New Orleans, Louisiana, with her husband, James Lott.
She has served on the Board of Directors of Inprint, Inc., a non-profit organization supporting the literary arts in Houston, Texas, as well as the Advisory Board for The New Orleans Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Tennessee Williams Festival in New Orleans; Pamela is a co-founder of the Northshore Literary Society in the Greater New Orleans area. She is also a member of the National League of American Pen Women.
Pamela’s first novel, Walk Back The Cat (Broadman & Holman. May, 2006) is the story of an embittered and powerful clergyman who learns an ancient secret, confronting him with truth and a choice that may destroy him.
She is also the best-selling author of the acclaimed non-fiction book Faith On Trial, published by Broadman & Holman in 1999, currently in its third printing.
Although it was written for non-lawyers, Faith On Trial was also chosen as a text for a course on law and religion at Yale Law School in the Spring of 2000, along with The Case For Christ by Lee Stroble. Continuing the apologetics begun in Faith On Trial, Pamela also appears with Gary Habermas, Josh McDowell, Darrell Bock, Lee Stroble, and others in the film Jesus: Fact or Fiction, a Campus Crusade for Christ production.
Pamela is the latest writer to emerge from a Louisiana family recognized for its statistically improbable number of successful authors. A cousin, James Lee Burke, who won the Edgar Award, wrote about the common ancestral grandfathers in his Civil War novel White Dove At Morning.
Among other writers in the family are Andre Dubus (Best Picture Oscar nomination for The Bedroom; his son, Andre Dubus III, author of The House of Sand and Fog, a Best Picture Oscar nomination and an Oprah pick; Elizabeth Nell Dubus (the Cajun trilogy); and Alafair Burke, just starting out with the well received Samantha Kincaid mystery series.
Learn more about Pamela and her books on her Website .
ABOUT THE BOOK:
At 8:47 A.M. on Wednesday, October 12, 1977, new-to-town businessman Bingham Murdock flew his small plane into New Orleans, banking it in such a way that a ray of sunshine shot through the city at light speed.
Amalise Catoir saw the flash from her sixteenth floor law office window. Finally feeling alive after the death of her abusive husband, she imagined seeing the plane was a fate for her eyes only; a special connection between the unknown giver and she, the recipient of light.
But someone else saw it, a six-year-old Cambodian refugee in foster care for whom a sudden burst of brightness reminds him of artillery fire.
Destined to cross paths with the man and the child, Amalise doesn’t yet know the deeper spiritual lesson she will learn: that we are responsible not only for the things we do, but also for the things that we don’t.
If you would like to read an excerpt of Chasing The Wind, go HERE.
MY REVIEW:
Chasing The Wind is a story filled with chance encounters that some might call “divine appointments” – encounters that connect the lives of perfect strangers in subtle ways that can affect their lives forever. Set in post Vietnam War New Orleans, the story focuses primarily on a high stakes real estate legal case and the people involved from the investors, to the lawyers, to the unsuspecting neighborhood residents who will be affected by the transaction. Expertly woven into the plot are also a romantic triangle, the story of a Cambodian refugee and his foster family, and a true life mystery that remains unsolved.
Although there were hints throughout the story, I thought it was brilliant that it wasn’t really evident until the end that the book was somewhat of a mystery. I also liked the way the author worked in the real life mystery by connecting it with one of her characters, offered a plausible explanation yet left it a question at the end.
Chasing The Wind is a strong character driven novel that left me wanting more. So far each book I have read by Ms. Ewen has been unique but I believe that Chasing The Wind has to be my favorite to date. For those who enjoy legal thrillers, this one is a must read.
