Captives (review)

Both the travel agencies and the State Department bulletins assured the Phillips family that their Caribbean vacation destination was tourist friendly. Nobody could accuse them of being foolhardy travelers lurching into trouble, yet they and the Deschamps family were kidnapped by a small group of activists protesting the machinations of an American nickel-mining company exploiting their island and the corrupt political leaders benefiting from private financial arrangements. The ordeal ended in a bloodbath that wiped out not only the activists but also the teenage Deschamps daughter, Louise; now Tony Phillips has written a book based on the diary he kept during their captivity, and his son, Martin, is facing the fact that his father's version of the story doesn't square with his own, either in fact or in emotional reaction. Pow divides his tale into two sections—the first composed mainly of Tony Phillips' freshly edited diary, and the second of Martin's review of the ordeal, in which it becomes clear that all parents misunderstood Martin's relationship (actually, lack thereof) with Louise, Louise's brief affair with one of her captors, and the full background of the hostage-takers' lives that led them to violent action. The dual-perspective approach is effective, and the action is tense (even through the outcome has been revealed up front). Though the explanations don't effectively explore the corporate/political machinations on the island, kids who simply come for the tale of two teens caught in an international nightmare will be too engrossed in the what to worry about the why.