McMahon, Neil. Revolution No. 9. HarperCollins. January 2005. c.304p. ISBN 0-06-052918-0. $15.95. Fiction

In McMahon's fourth Carroll Monks thriller (after To the Bone), the ER doctor is kidnapped late one night by a group of backwoods fanatics, led by a barefooted Manson-like sociopath who calls himself Freeboot. Monk initially believes that the doctor* has been abducted as part of an extortion scheme, but he soon learns that his wayward son, Glenn, took the group to the doctor*, as Freeboot's three-year-old son needs medical attention. Only dimly aware of a series of shocking murders that the group has committed, Monks must escape from an armed compound in order to save the child and then face the wrath of a madman bent on revolution. The driving pace of this lean, muscular story brings to mind the intensity of a David Morrell thriller—at least for the first two-thirds. Near the end, the pace slows, and the threatened cataclysm turns out to be a riot in Bodega Bay. Still, reader interest never flags. Recommended for most popular fiction collections.

LJ, 130, no. 1 (January 2005), 98-99.

*Please note: Library Journal, in editing this review, introduced several errors. Monks and "the doctor" are the same person.