The Siege
by Stephen White
Published by Dutton Adult
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Reviewed by Sara Porter
The Siege is one of those types of thrillers where the readers think they know what is going on, but towards the end the author takes a complete turn and makes the readers question everything that had gone on before. Not that it’s a bad thing. The path that the book goes and its resolution play out in a suspenseful, but thoughtful way.
Several Yale students are reported missing over a weekend. None of them have returned home to visit their parents or have gone on weekend keggers. No, instead they are held captive within the hideout of Book and Snake, a secret society in Yale. All of the students were tapped or selected to join the society.
The most suspenseful part of the book is in the first few chapters because the characters and the reader don’t even know what’s going on. The students are in the society’s windowless, underground buildings–and that’s all we know. For the majority of the book no one knows who the kidnappers are or what condition the students are in. The tension builds in the early chapters as the setting is mostly outside of the Book and Snake building as rescue workers, FBI agents, and local police try to communicate with those inside.
There is a real sense of time and place throughout the book. The Yale campus is descriptive with its ancient buildings, affluent students, and pretty landscape. It appears to be the type of place that keeps a façade of conformity and tradition, while the darkness lies within.
The darkness doesn’t just lie with the kidnapping. The darkness lies also with the rescuers as well. There is Christopher Poe, the dedicated FBI agent who is suffering through post-traumatic stress disorder after the Oklahoma City bombing. Then there is Dierdre, the CIA analyst who flees from an unhappy marriage into Poe’s arms. There is also Sam Purdy, the Boulder police detective and single father on suspension, but hired by the mother of one of the students to find her daughter.
When the victims are released and the kidnappers are finally revealed, it asks a lot more questions, and raises bigger issues than was originally thought. But that’s what makes The Siege a thriller with a brain.
Armchair Interviews says: Highly recommended.
Author’s Web site: http://www.AuthorStephenWhite.com