Monks is appalled by Freeboot's violent histrionics and Manson-like affinity for the hidden messages buried within Lennon and McCartney lyrics, yet acknowledges that he hears echoes of his own feelings when Freeboot speaks about the disintegration of workers' rights, the escalating differential between the haves and the have-nots, and the slap-on-the-wrist "justice" doled out in cases of billion-dollar corporate malfeasance. Could this well-armed madman actually have his finger on the pulse of the underclass?" The reason Monks has been abducted, he soon discovers, is Freeboot's own son, a four-year-old boy who is deathly ill - a conundrum for Freeboot, whose distrust of institutional America (hospitals included) borders on the psychotic. Monks, an ER physician, has been brought in to care for the boy, but he can see immediately that the boy's condition is acute and that only immediate hospitalization will save him.

When Monks's pleas fall on deaf ears, he fashions a daring escape during a snowstorm, with the young boy slung across his back - and brings the wrath of a madman down on himself and his family, culminating in a diabolically crafted "revolution"

From The Critics Publishers Weekly: Author';s fourth thriller about reluctant medical hero Dr. Carroll Monks (after 2003's To the Bone), McMahon pulls off the virtually impossible: he creates a lunatic terrorist adversary so believable that he quickly becomes touchingly real. "Freeboot," as the leader of a band of dedicated, deranged outlaws who live on a secluded tract of land in the mountains of Northern California calls himself, is "a macho speed freak who dominated his followers, made allusions to Machiavelli, and hinted at the grandiose importance that he would enjoy in the eyes of history." Monks gets involved when Freeboot's three-year-old son becomes seriously ill, and the doctor's own long-estranged son-a member of Freeboot's terrorist tribe that's chosen the titular Beatles song as their anthem-suggests kidnapping the medical man to treat the child. The boy turns out to be in a dangerous diabetic condition, and Monks's first chore (aside from staying alive) is to treat his illness and then find a way to get the child to a hospital.

Since Freeboot and his followers have actually begun their revolution by killing some leading citizens and scattering their stolen objects among the homeless, the terrorist is ready to sacrifice his child for his cause. Dr. Monks, his son already lost, is equally determined to keep the little boy alive. In McMahon's cool, expert hands, it becomes a duel both fascinating and frighteningly real.

 HarperCollins Publishers 0-06-052918-0 / 9780060529185
Hardcover As New New York 

Price: 16.19 USD