Reviewed by Lesley
TITLE: The Pipeline- A Novel
AUTHOR: Greg Lindeblom
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 278 Pages
RELEASE DATE: January 17, 2026
BLURB:
Exiled by his own family for being too visible, too defiant, too himself, Tomás Moreno is abandoned in La Corona—a forgotten jungle town in the far northeastern corner of Colombia. The son of the Minister of the Interior finds himself in a place with no electricity, no running water, and no escape. But in this prison of his family’s making, Tomás discovers something unexpected: purpose.
As teacher, healer, and advocate for the powerless villagers of La Corona, he navigates the impossible space between guerrillas, the oil company, and the military. When rebels repeatedly sabotage the nearby pipeline, toxic oil floods the river that sustains the town, and Tomás becomes the only voice fighting for people who have none.
Then Felix Amaral arrives—a Brazilian engineer working with the cleanup crew—and for the first time in years, Tomás glimpses the possibility of love.
Suddenly, he’s summoned back to Bogotá to join peace negotiations that could end the war. But returning to the family that rejected him means confronting his past. In a land where survival demands compromise and silence, can Tomás claim both love and purpose—or must he sacrifice one to save the other?
A powerful story of love, of identity, of resilience, and of finding family in the most unexpected place
REVIEW:
Let me begin by apologising to the author, Greg Lindeblom, for the delay in writing this review.
This is a brilliant second novel from Greg. It’s a story about resilience and strength in the face of adversity — not only Tomas’s resilience, but that of the people of La Corona and the millions around the world who live in similar circumstances.
The book is exceptionally well written and deeply engaging, set in Colombia in 1993 during a period of intense political unrest. Tomas Moreno’s flamboyant lifestyle finally pushes his father — the Interior Minister of Colombia — to take drastic action. He arranges for his son to be kidnapped in the middle of the night and left in a remote village on the Catatumbo River. It is an incredibly poor community with no clean water, electricity, teacher or healthcare. Here, Tomas makes genuine friends and, with the help of Ignacio, a local priest, uses his education and privilege to become the village’s doctor, teacher, and intermediary between the soldiers, villagers, and guerrillas.
Felix, a Brazilian environmental engineer, is brought in to repair the Caño-Limón oil pipeline after it is blown up by guerrillas — an event that has devastating consequences for the village. The attraction between Felix and Tomas is immediate, and when Tomas is summoned back to Bogotá, he returns with Felix, plunging him into the world of the wealthy political elite.
The novel features a fascinating cast of characters, including Vargas, the guerrilla leader with a surprising past; Manolo, Tomas’s best friend in La Corona; and his cousin Violet, who will do anything to escape her life of poverty — along with many others.
While it is certainly a love story, it is also so much more. It charts Tomas’s evolution from a marketing professional organising events and partying hard in Bogotá, to a man surviving with nothing material at all, to someone who becomes a passionate advocate for the country’s poor, volunteering in a community centre.
Greg is one of those authors who makes me wonder why I don’t read more outside my usual genre. I look forward to seeing what he publishes next.
RATING: 
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