The Radicals

Rating:
Summary: One of the most intense novels I've read!
Review: In over fifty years of reading mysteries of various subgenres, this is the first one that has ever awakened me at 3 a.m. to save the victims. No, I didn't wake to read what would happen next-I had to save the women!

The Radicals is set in New Zealand and the mystery begins when Al Brookes and his wife Jan stumble across an abandoned camper in the bush. They report the find to Chief Inspector Jim Gilliard at Wellington Central Police Station. Jan goes home to be with their adopted daughter Janine while Brookes assists Gilliard with the investigation. Gilliard informs Brookes a headless, fingerless, male corpse has been found. They suspect it is that of a missing French tourist, but they've not found his female companion. The only clue they find in the camper is a camera. The last picture on the film in it is of a group of people in the middle of which the two tourists are the only white faces in a sea of brown and there isn't a single clearly recognizable face among the brown ones. All the men in the group had either moved, bowed their heads, or covered their faces as the photo was taken. The only clear feature about them is the insignia worn on the front of their jackets identifying them as a local chapter of the Maori gang that has been terrorizing the area for years, intent upon driving all white people back into the sea and taking back New Zealand for the Maori race.

Two more headless, fingerless, male bodies are found. Jan is concerned for the plight of the woman whom she fears is either dead, sold into slavery, or being tortured. She knows the depravity the Maorists are capable of and since there are no clues to the girl's whereabouts, Jan suggests a psychic be called in. With no leads and a shortage of personnel, Gilliard relents and calls in the psychic but the magistrate refuses to issue a search warrant for the area the woman pinpoints. The Council of Civil Liberties would be sure to create a stink if the rights of any of the Maori citizens were disturbed. Gilliard sends Brookes to scout the area. And then Jan and Janine are both abducted.

Ever so slowly Brookes and Gilliard identify the leader of the gang, the gang's objectives, safe houses and crimes. They proceed so slowly, so carefully, with such caution in fact, that when life interferes with my reading, the case interferes with my sleep. The tension is nearly unbearable.

To say this book is well-written, the characters well developed, the settings well drawn, the plot captivating, the action lively, is gross understatement. This is one of the most intense novels I've ever read.

-Sumera Majid