China Lake-Meg Gardiner

China Lake
Meg Gardiner
Obsidian, Jun 2008, $799
ISBN: 9780340822494

In Santa Barbara, California Pastor Peter Wyoming and his Remnant supporters heckle at the AIDS funeral of Claudine Gerard. Close friend novelist Evan Delaney is outraged by these religious nuts and tells them so. However, Peter gets the last word when he implies his cartoonist is Evan’s runaway sister-in-law Tabitha, who deserted her Navy fighter pilot husband Brian and their now six-year-old son Luke two years ago. Brian’s sister Evan has raised Luke who is going to join his father shortly at the China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center. Evan fears that Tabitha brainwashed by Pastor Pete and his Remnant will try to abduct Luke.

When the Remnant use cops to take Luke, Evan does what she can to stall them until Brian arrives. Soon afterward a Remnant member is murdered; the cops suspect Brian. Evan believes she must prove her sibling’s innocence. However, she fears leaving Luke with anyone else even her lawyer somewhat wheelchair bound boyfriend Jesse Blackburn. She also cannot bring the lad to some of the dives she will visit like Tabitha’s home, Pastor Pete’s church and compound, and the desert bars where her sci fi is a cult favorite.

This is an exciting thriller in which the courageous though stupid (for some of the moves she makes John Wayne would avoid) heroine challenges a dangerous fanatical sect who wants her nephew as a pawn for something insidious. The Remnant is a fascinating in a macabre way sect whose leadership plans to move forward the day of reckoning. Although the cops seem more Keystone than professional especially when they fail to arrest any Remnant member involved in snatching Luke (with their assistance) once they know the truth, fans will enjoy the exciting adventures of Evan Delaney, protective lioness keeping her cub safe from a jungle filled with lunatics.

Harriet Klausner