The Last Sanctuary

When Holden began his first, well-received novel, The River Sorrow, he intended to write a quick mass market potboiler, but he then deliberately set out (with considerable success) to give it more depth and resonance. Unfortunately, The Last Sanctuary looks very much like the potboiler he originally envisioned. It has some up-to-date touches: hero Joe Curtis is a Gulf War rather than a Vietnam vet; the plot revolves around a strange anti-government religious cult that steals and stockpiles arms; an agent in pursuit of Joe is a Native American woman; and there are knowing references to a female Attorney General still bothered by the fallout from Waco. The pace is rapid and the body count high, but the book reads more like a screen treatment than a finished novel. Joe's motivations are murky throughout: the calm plotter of the climax seems nothing like the confused young man who begins the book driving a clunky car he hopes to sell to bring his runaway brother home. The women--Kari, the sect member Joe comes to love, and Leanne Red Feather, the pursuing agent--are thoroughly contradictory (not the same as complex) characters, and though the murderous Rick is a satisfactory villain, the portrait of cult leader Father Amon is an unconvincing mixture of otherworldly wisdom and menace. The writing is swift but wooden, and the book, which has some well-researched but not very well-described Alaskan settings, will probably film better than it reads. Major ad/promo; author tour. (Feb.)