Dante Carpenter - armchair Buddhist and family-inspired wannabe Hells Angel, turned relief worker - is on the run for a crime he did not commit, after a situation at a brutal post-Vietnam refugee camp goes wrong.
From Manila, around the Pacific Rim to the sordid and often dangerous streets of Bangkok, Dante lurches from crisis to crisis, surviving when perhaps he probably shouldn't. Back in America, a group of super-rich, power-mad businessmen are hatching a plot to wreak a terrible revenge on Japan for old war crimes, and the competitive cost of the emergence of the Japanese economy. As world events overtake him, Dante slowly realises that he is being implicated in that plot. As half the world's police forces, intelligence agencies and ruthless bounty hunters join the chase for his blood, only his student understanding of Buddhism keeps him going.
But then remembering his past, Dante begins to fight back. In the end, his friends and enemies converge, in a vast concurrence of causes and conditions, as everything threatens to change and pass away.........
Carter's character development is as outstanding as his fantastically detailed knowledge of the locations involved, and the politics of the region. I was left wondering if it is any coincidence that 'Carpenter' is a product of the words 'Carter' and 'pen'..........
No comments:
Post a Comment