Playing with Fire

One of the major themes in the novel is that it is dangerous to push your luck or continuing to do things that you know that you should not be doing. The narrative reinforces this theme through the stories of Martin Trebeaux, Brock, and Yancy. Each one of these characters have instances when they can make a choice to say no to trouble or getting deeper into the troublesome situation. Each one of them decides to continue down dangerous paths and end up suffering negative consequences because of their relative decisions.

Martin is already in trouble with the Mafia. They have already given him one warning about the quality of sand he delivered to Bog Noogie's resort. He knows that he did indeed deliver a bad product, but he shows no remorse. In fact, he keeps on scheming and trying to be a big...