PAPER TRAIL

When his mother is killed by members of the militia after his father reveals that he is investigatiing the Soldiers of God--a group they belong to--for the FBI, fifteen-year-old Walker Morgan realizes that nothing is what it seems as he fights for survival, in a suspense novel of identity, trust, and betrayal.

Grade 5-8-Walker's father is a deep-undercover mole who has infiltrated a fanatical right-wing militia for the FBI, taking his family along in order to provide even more convincing cover. The novel begins with Walker and his parents fleeing from the soldiers after his father's cover has been blown. Chapters giving a third-person account of the 15-year-old's attempted escape from the militia are intermixed with his first-person account of his life in the compound as a younger boy. These chapters are spliced with a page or two of "scraps," consisting of quotes and news accounts about the militia movement. This ambitious narrative technique doesn't quite work, however. At the novel's end, all these lines come together fairly well; but many readers are likely to be confused along the way. This is unfortunate because individual chapters are often exciting, written with a vividness that has the potential to keep young adventure fans on the edge of their seats.
Todd Morning, Schaumburg Township Public Library, IL
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gilbert (Stone Water; Broken Chords) stresses the destructive forces of paramilitary groups in this chilling survival tale of a boy playing a game of cat and mouse within an antigovernment camp. In the heart-stopping opening scene, the 15-year-old protagonist (who remains nameless until the end of the novel) witnesses the murders of first his pet dog and then his mother. As the boy fades in and out of consciousness in his hiding place inside a hollow log, the narrative takes a surreal turn, mixing in hallucinations and fragments of boyhood memories, alternating with excerpts from newspapers documenting real-life paramilitary groups. Through a flashback, readers discover that the protagonist has recently learned that his parents are not what they seem. Far from being a devout follower of the Reverend GeneralAleader of the "Soldiers of God"Ahis father is an FBI agent working undercover, presumably with his mother's full knowledge. But even before the boy has had a chance to sort out his confusion, his whole family is under attack, and readers never get a sense of the boy's own allegiances. Those anxiously waiting to learn the boy's fate will be jolted by the shocking turn of events after he finally awakens. This complex montage of images and dialogue may well prompt discussions about truth and deception, but readers may experience the same sense of betrayal by the author's trickery that the boy feels as a consequence of his father's lies. Ages 12-up. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.