cover image Gabrielle

Gabrielle

Albert Guerard. Dutton Books, $20 (224pp) ISBN 978-1-55611-288-1

Part chic political thriller, part surreal satire, this crisp, stylish caper teems with high jinks. Thomas Randall, U.S. assistant secretary of state, is kidnapped in Paris by a cabdriver and a hotel chambermaid who mistake him for a wealthy businessman. His bungling captors photograph him in kinky, compromising positions, whip him and cut off one of his thumbs. Gabrielle, the enigmatic chambermaid who insists she's a victim too, alternates as temptress, rescuer and crafty Mata Hari. An immensely rich anti-Castro Cuban dentist, a corrupt British journalist, Colombian drug lords, Basque separatists and a former right-hand man of exiled Haitian dictator ``Baby Doc'' Duvalier become embroiled in a scheme to extract millions of dollars for Randall's release. Their antics make all extremist passions seem interchangeable and cast political murder and duplicity as everyday occurrences, which may be the author's point. His barbed wit assisting his satiric vision, Guerard ( The Exiles ) shows that opportunism transcends all other ``isms.'' (June)