Perpetual Chaos of a Wandering Mind: Iraq War

Book: The Reckoning
Author: Tanya Parker Mills
Pages: 384
Format: Paperback, Kindle/ebook
Publisher: Book Surge Publishing
Book Source: Provided by Author
Category: Historical Fiction, Suspense/Thriller
Style: Compelling, intense scenes of violence/torture

Synopsis from GoodReads:

. . . Through gritty, gut wrenching prose Mills’s heroic and courageous storytelling exposes the horrors of dictatorship and the mindless cruelty that flows from political repression. It also sends a message of hope, inspiration, and faith in the human heart. Mills’s The Reckoning masterfully weaves the real horrors of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq with the rich threads of a compelling fictional narrative as raw and real as anything taken from today’s political headlines. . . .more

My Take:

Okay. The synopsis gives a wonderful idea of what this book is about, but not the plot. So, here goes: beginning in the summer of 2002, our heroine, Theresa, a freelance journalist after a story, illegally crosses out of Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq and is spotted by the Islamist fundamentalist group, the Ansari, which leads to her apprehension by the Iraqi army. With her are arrested her cameraman, Peter (who is in love with her), and her three Kurdish guides (a father and two sons).

Just a few months before the US invasion, Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush are rattling sabers at one another. The atmosphere in totalitarian Iraq is one of fear and suspicion. Terror reigns. In the book, we follow Theresa, Peter, Jalal, Massoud, and Barham as they endure isolation, starvation, torture and a number of other horrors in the hands of the Mukhabarat, the Iraqi secret police. When Theresa's history of living in Iraq as a child comes to light, her situation becomes nearly hopeless.

First let me say that this book is the perfect illustration of the vagaries of the publishing industry. The Reckoning is easily one of the most professional books I have ever read, yet is self-published by Ms. Mills. Her finely honed craft draws in the reader with painful, sometimes shocking realism. Her plot so tight it's hermetically sealed, her characters rich and compelling, her pacing impeccable, she accomplishes what only the best writers manage: she disappears as she envelopes the reader in the story.