The Gatekeeper
by Michelle Gagnon
Published by Mira Publishing
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Reviewed by Sara Porter
The Gatekeeper starts well and has a chilling premise that could unfortunately happen. However, about a third of the way, the premise becomes lost in weakened resolutions and an ending that seems to be formed from desperation rather than a real conclusion.
Madison Grant, 16, is kidnapped in a San Francisco airport believing that she is meeting an online boyfriend. Instead she is taken by a group of white supremacists that blackmail her father into assisting them in a domestic terrorist attack. On their trail is private agent, Jack Riley while Jack’s fiancée, Special Agent Kelly Jones, is conducting her own investigation of a gruesome death of a senator.
The story has some really strong elements in plot and character. The idea of a charismatic leader uniting various hate groups against immigrants may seem far-fetched, but is written in such an understated way as the leader feeds on his subordinates’ paranoia and racism, it seems plausible.
Also Gagnon writes very strong characters that are committed to their jobs. Nowhere is this shown better than in the love triangle that develops between Jack, Kelly, and Jack’s supervisor, Syd. Rather than have scenes of romance and sexual tension spliced with the action, Gagnon writes her three protagonists, particularly the female characters, as strong people in the thick of action. They may harbor romantic feelings, but it is more important to free Madison and stop terrorists than to climb in the sack.
While Gagnon has a strong plot and leading characters, her resolutions are anti-climactic and lead to no real endings. Madison and her family, who were key in the beginning, disappear towards the end (which is a relief since Madison was quite irritating). The Jake-Kelly-Syd triangle, while doing so well as an undercurrent, is resolved in a “deus ex machine” moment (a plot device in which a person or thing appears “out of the blue” to help a character to overcome a seemingly insolvable difficulty), which suggests that Gagnon decided more as an afterthought than a real subplot.
Armchair Interviews says: Some good read but also plot issues.