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Summary
Summary
Jake and Carolyn Donovan standaccused of massacring 16 people and touching off one of the country's worst environmental catastrophes. Although innocent, they have the power to bring down a top law-enforcement official. With their young son Travis, they have eluded capture for 13 years and have remained at the top of the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List. Constantly moving from place to place, the strain of being on the run is finally taking its toll on the family. When they are driven from their last hiding place, the Donovans are forced to fight back -- risking death to regain their lives...and their freedom.
Author Notes
John Gilstrap is the acclaimed author of Nathan's Run and AT All Costs, both of which were selections of the Literary Guild. A former firefighter and EMT, he is an explosives-safety expert and an environmental engineer. He lives with his wife and son in Virginia.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Kirkus Review
Mr. and Mrs. Middle America take it on the lam from an army of law enforcers when a routine check reveals that they're high on the Most Wanted list. Fifteen years ago, newlyweds Jake and Carolyn Donovan worked for Enviro-Kleen, a firm whose scrubbing of a gas-laden army ammunition plant touched off what came to be known throughout the nation as the Newark Incident, a catastrophe that left all 16 of their co-workers dead and hundreds of square miles of the Arkansas countryside contaminated with radioactive waste. The sole survivors, the Donovans, were promptly branded ecoterrorists responsible for the holocaust, and promoted to the top of the FBI's dance card. Only the money and help provided by the one-man Witness Protection Program run by Carolyn's uncle, ruthless Chicago developer Harry Sinclair, allowed them to escape the feds and reemerge as Jake and Carolyn Brighton. Now, as they hustle their dazed son Travis, 13, out of his school and off to the storage locker they've had stocked with food and weapons and transport and new identity papers, they insist to the boy that they never did anything wrong; every scrap of evidence against them was planted. By now, readers of Gilstrap's sizzling debut novel, Nathan's Run (1996), will have realized that he's recycled the same plot--the innocent on the run from massive, untrustworthy forces of authority--but pumped everything up (beginning by substituting an entire family for the solitary child) by making it bigger, faster, noisier, and longer. Especially longer. Before they've finally vindicated themselves--not a big surprise, since in scene after scene everybody gets shot but them--Jake and Carolyn have tracked the Newark Incident to the very highest levels of the government, and Gilstrap has ingeniously twisted his simple premise six ways from Sunday. Does for families what Nathan's Run did for preteens--puts them through endless rounds of entertainingly action-packed pursuit. (Film rights to Arnold Kopelson)
Booklist Review
Readers who have begun to wonder whether there are any new suspense plots left will rejoice at the publication of this exciting and very plausible thriller by the author of Nathan's Run (1996). Jake and Carolyn Donovan have been fugitives for 15 years, living under a succession of false names, on the run from the U.S. government, charged with mass murder. But they're innocent, framed by parties unknown--and now, purely by accident, they are found. What follows is a breathless chase, with the Donovans fleeing their government pursuers while at the same time trying to discover who framed them and to reclaim their lives. This fine novel, soon to be made into a film (as was its predecessor), arrives like a breath of fresh air. Its characters--especially Jake, a nonviolent man forced to consider the possibility of extreme violence to protect his family--are well drawn, and its story is unpredictable and frighteningly real. Thrillers don't get much better than this. Expect high demand, both upon publication and, especially, when the movie is released. (Reviewed April 15, 1998)0446523151David Pitt
Library Journal Review
Jake and Carolyn Donovan head the FBI's list of the "Ten Most Wanted" for a crime they didn't commit. For 14 years they have lived under assumed names, moving to new towns when necessary. Jake gets caught in an FBI drug bust and is released but not before his fingerprints have been taken. By the time the FBI makes the connection, Jake, Carolyn, and their son have activated their escape plan. This time they mean to prove their innocence. To do that they return to the scene of the crime, only one small step ahead of the FBI agent now on the case. Why was the investigation dropped? Who had the power to set them up? What part does the ubiquitous Mr. Wiggins play? Well read by Philip Bosco, this story is a real potboiler until the implausible conclusion. Recommended.ÄJoanna M. Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island, Coll. of Continuing Education Lib., Providence (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.