Under the Beetle's Cellar [Large Print] (Paperback)

Protagonist Molly Cates, a crime writer for a Texas magazine and the only one to ever interview the cult's charismatic leader, Samuel Mordecai, is in a race against time to discover something about Mordecai that will give the hostage negotiators some leverage before the promised apocalypse on day 50.

The novel opens on the 46th day. Walter Demming, the bus driver, a psychologically scarred Vietnam vet who has spent the last 20 years guarding his life from involvement, keeps his charges' spirits up with the continuing adventures of a vulture named Jacksonville, counterbalancing the daily harangues from the cult's leader.

Demming and the children, ranging in age from 6 to 12, are imprisoned in a derelict bus buried underground in an old barn. Worms and bugs tunnel in the earth packed against the bus' windows. One of their two bare light bulbs has just burned out. The children play tic-tac-toe on the windows and pogs in the aisles between the seats.

Fed twice a day on cereal and milk, they fantasize about food. They argue, snap at one another, burst into tears. One of the children suffers from severe asthma. The cult refuses medication and his attacks terrify everyone.

Without melodrama or mush, Walker develops a group dynamic that relies on breathing life into the individual children and especially Demming, a reluctant hero who's scared and lost and determined to do his best.

Walker alternates between scenes in the bus and efforts on the outside. The police, the FBI and the hostage negotiator have gotten nowhere with Mordecai and don't know where the children are being held. Cates, herself viscerally intimidated by her one meeting with the cult leader, delves into the odd circumstances of his birth and his harsh childhood, which clearly loom large in his religious landscape.

Cates' detective work, which involves bending more than a few of her own personal and professional rules, is absorbing and ingenious without being unbelievable. As Mordecai's pathology unfolds, we also get a portrait of Demming from his home and his two close friends.

Cates herself is a prickly but appealing character. A loner with a grown daughter, she's in love with her ex-husband (one of the cops) and driven but ambivalent about her job.

The suspense is nail-biting, but what makes this novel a stand-out is Demming and the kids. Walker gets the atmosphere of timeless boredom and fear just right, the children's voices ring true and Demming's character, revealed in accumulating flashes throughout the narrative, is utterly believable.

A scary thriller with a smashing explosive finish.

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After 46 days, the negotiations have reached a dead-lock. Mordecai will not even listen, let alone concede anything, and he threatens to kill the hostages if even one person steps onto Jezreeelite soil. It is now that crime reporter Molly Cates enters the scenario. She interviewed Mordecai once before and did not like the experience at all. Now, if she can possibly unearth more about Mordecai's past that the FBI can use as a lever in the negotiations, she may well be their last remaining hope. But she does have just five days time...

This is an excellent thriller. There's nothing particularly wonderful about Willis Walker's prose-style - it tends towards the pedestrian, the very normal; it certainly doesn't sing - or anything riveting about protagonist Molly Cates - she is real and human, but there isn't a great deal save from her humanity and stubbornness to make her stand out from many other gutsy female protagonists - but this is still one terrific thriller, which definitely deserves to be more widely read. It's intelligent and though-provoking (but not too much) and tackles well issues of religion and faith and religious mania, as well as having some snappy dialogue and a cracker of a plot. It marries three elements absolutely brilliantly: cults, hostage negotiating, and good old investigating. The Prophet Samuel Mordecai is a particularly delicious villain, chilling and, of course, mad, as well as having a brilliant name. Mordecai. Mordecai. My, i could just roll that one about on my tongue for ages. Isn't it just great?

Anyway...Under the Beetle's Cellar is a tense, suspenseful thriller with a dramatic and moving conclusion that does not disappoint. In terms of plot, you'll notice that this book is strikingly similar to Jeffery Deaver's brilliant A Maiden's Grave, (group of children of a bus kidnapped and held hostage), which was published in the same year. But, this book still retains some very original, different elements which make it another must-read thriller.

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After 46 days, the negotiations have reached a dead-lock. Mordecai will not even listen, let alone concede anything, and he threatens to kill the hostages if even one person steps onto Jezreeelite soil. It is now that crime reporter Molly Cates enters the scenario. She interviewed Mordecai once before and did not like the experience at all. Now, if she can possibly unearth more about Mordecai's past that the FBI can use as a lever in the negotiations, she may well be their last remaining hope. But she does have just five days time...

This is an excellent thriller. There's nothing particularly wonderful about Willis Walker's prose-style - it tends towards the pedestrian, the very normal; it certainly doesn't sing - or anything riveting about protagonist Molly Cates - she is real and human, but there isn't a great deal save from her humanity and stubbornness to make her stand out from many other gutsy female protagonists - but this is still one terrific thriller, which definitely deserves to be more widely read. It's intelligent and though-provoking (but not too much) and tackles well issues of religion and faith and religious mania, as well as having some snappy dialogue and a cracker of a plot. It marries three elements absolutely brilliantly: cults, hostage negotiating, and good old investigating. The Prophet Samuel Mordecai is a particularly delicious villain, chilling and, of course, mad, as well as having a brilliant name. Mordecai. Mordecai. My, i could just roll that one about on my tongue for ages. Isn't it just great?

Anyway...Under the Beetle's Cellar is a tense, suspenseful thriller with a dramatic and moving conclusion that does not disappoint. In terms of plot, you'll notice that this book is strikingly similar to Jeffery Deaver's brilliant A Maiden's Grave, (group of children of a bus kidnapped and held hostage), which was published in the same year. But, this book still retains some very original, different elements which make it another must-read thriller.

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