In the Forest of the Night

Martin Springer, an American doctor in Central America, joins forces with his archenemy's lovely daughter to rescue his wife, Katherine, from Senor Vaca, the vicious head of the secret police, who has condemned her to his private brothel to satisfy his perverted lusts

In this steamy, irresistible novel, Faust ( The Burning Sky ) yanks an American doctor from the jaws of a rebel firing squad in an anonymous Central American country into the deadlier sights of a corrupt government security chief with his eye on the doctor's beautiful wife. Dr. Martin Springer is about to be shot as an inadvertent witness to a village massacre when Col. Fuerto--a Cuban mercenary hired by the rebels--bluffs past the firing squad and hustles Martin onto a helicopter. Hours later, Fuerto has dumped Martin with minimal supplies on a jungle river, and flown on to Mexico. Meanwhile Katherine Springer has arrived in the capital to locate her husband in all the wrong places--her only option, since the CIA supports the corrupt goverment. There she fires the libido of the chief of the secret police, Cabeza de Vaca. Martin manages a hair-raising journey down river to the capital, where he finds a joyous Katherine--and the real trouble begins. Furious at being spurned, de Vaca blocks the Springers' exit from the country and has Katherine "arrested" and interned at a brothel. Martin, hardened by his jungle flight, kidnaps de Vaca's teenaged daughter, forcing a standoff. The re-entry of the ebullient, deadly Fuerte and the ensuing action rocket the tale to a perfect resolution. Faust's clear, unadorned prose and his deft, pure characterization ring with the force of Hemingway or Graham Greene.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Faust's first published novel since Snowkill (Dorchester, 1981) drops two American innocents into a Central American snake pit of a country. Martin Springer is a volunteer physician; after witnessing a massacre, he is arrested and faces execution. His wife, Katherine, soon arrives and attempts to arrange his release. Unknown to her, Martin escapes at the last moment and begins a journey through the jungle to the capital city, during which he assumes some of the brutality around him. Meantime, Katherine descends into a hell of her own just trying to survive. The two finally reunite and extract a measure of revenge before returning home. While some of Faust's plot developments take on a fantastic sheen, his writing skill and pacing keep the story from dragging. Recommended wherever suspense fiction is popular.
- A.J. Wright, Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.