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"Thrilling chiller"

The New York Times assigns Photojournalist Molly Drake to accompany the U.S. Army as they retrieve the bones of a pilot who went missing in Cambodia. However, they find no sign of bones or dog tags until Molly sees through the lens of her $10,000 camera the remains of a mass grave. With the monsoon about to begin, depart, their mission failed.

Once again, Molly uses her camera lens to find a cache of bones in a well. The Cambodian government allows them one week to find what they seek but Molly, archeologist Duncan and Kleat, who is looking for the thirty-year-old bones of his brothers are ordered off the project. One of the people who watched the dig shows her a dog tag and tells the group there are nine others; he will lead them to it. Unable to contain their excitement, Molly, Duncan, Kleat and their guides follow Lukas to a deserted ancient city thought to be two thousand year old. Molly sees and experiences things that can only be attributed to the supernatural as she discovers the truth about her path.

THE RECKONING starts as a thriller and metamorphosis into a supernatural tale. Cambodia, a place where legends and myths are closer than most people ever experience, works its magic on the visiting Americans, especially Molly, who sees and hears things the other's don't. There are very few people, who could cope with what Molly experiences and stay sane, but she is a strong woman and it will take a lot to break her. Jeff Long has written a thrilling chiller in which the natural and the paranormal world collide with fantastic results.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted June 9, 2004

Enter the territory of Jeff Long, where the unknown is deeply present, death is a constant shadow, and the human spirit is our final hope. Now comes The Reckoning, another superbly original thriller -- a story of predation, betrayal, and resurrection that is at once intricate, haunting, and terrifying. Armed with only a camera and iron determination, thirty-year-old photojournalist Molly Drake arrives in modern-day Cambodia to cover the U.S. military search for the remains of an American pilot shot down during the Vietnam War.

In this eerie wasteland pockmarked with human bones and live land mines, the people hold more secrets than the landscape, from aging archaeologist Duncan O'Brian to John Kleat, a caustic vet hunting for his long lost brother. When Molly's camera captures a flight helmet buried among Khmer Rouge victims, diplomatic powers force her and her civilian comrades off the dig.

But just as a typhoon looms offshore, the outcasts learn of an even bigger find. A mysterious expatriot guides them into the ruins of an ancient city, where they begin a harrowing search for the remains of an entire patrol of GIs that strayed in combat thirty years ago.

With storm winds hammering their jungle fortress, Molly discovers that a war she never knew never died. Her survival comes to depend on her journalistic skills to solve a forgotten murder among these warriors left behind. In the end, her only hope for salvation is to redeem the lost souls that surround her.