Protracted, slow novels padded with unnecessary scenes, characters, settings and points of view are endemic in the inspirational market, and at almost 700 pages, Tanneberg's sequel to Without Warning
exemplifies these problems. The story line follows a tried-and-true adventure formula. While 12-year-old Jessica Cain and her father, John, are on a tour of Israel, Islamic terrorists abduct Jessica. John returns home, but when Jessica is rumored to have been taken to Iran, it's clear the U.S. government doesn't want to instigate an international incident by trying to rescue her. At his wit's end, John travels to Iran, where terrorists hold Jessica hostage. Coincidentally, just as he arrives at the house where she is imprisoned, Jessica escapes out of a conveniently unlocked window. Jessica stows aboard a ship and encounters terrorists in Croatia, while her family combats even more terrorism in the United States. Tanneberg's details about the Middle East are laudably specific, but he tends to bury the reader under an avalanche of information. There are also myriad and superfluous point-of-view shifts, which hurt the pacing. Buried within are some interesting scenes, but few readers will have the stamina to persist to the novel's conclusion. A ruthless edit could have massaged this novel into a fast-paced suspense read, but at twice the length it needs to be, it fails to engage the reader. (July)
