Villains

A friend of mine lent me Meg Gardiner's CHINA LAKE a while back and from her recommendation I remember just one detail: That the baddies in it were a bunch of right-wing crazies and I was going to looooove it.

This was a very tantalizing offer, but in reality, not so satisfying. Chances are most Republicans I know would find the fictional fringe group of CHINA LAKE, the Remnant, to be pretty distasteful. The Remnant, led by its charismatic pastor, protests at the funerals of AIDS activists and out gays and lesbians in southern California with signs proclaiming "God Hates Sluts" and a website counting down to Armageddon. (In protest they resemble a small but highly visible American group I will not name because I don't want their rotten asses to get any press.) The heroine of Gardiner's books, Evan Delaney, would steer clear of them but for the fact that her ex-sister-in-law is a devotee and trying to kidnap her son back from Evan's care; she finds out amidst one such attempt that the Remnant is stockpiling weapons and planning to conduct biological warfare against local government in order to form a base to take over the country.

Here's the part where my rational brain took over and said, Now wait a second. There must be an easier way than all the ways they chose to do this [redacted for spoilers]. It is somewhat amusing that, unable to see the easy way to national domination, they had to take steps A through X. But I'm pretty sure I could plan a national takeover better, and I don't live in a religious commune, so. I think the plot just spiraled out of control at that point.

The book was okay, but I'd rather finish all the V.I. Warshawskis first before getting back to this author. Still I wonder about the writers who are busy converting the current American political situation into mass-market thrillers (uh, besides this one).