White Slave

New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, Inc, 1987. Uncorrected Bound Galleys. Wraps. Very good. 368 pages. Date written in black ink on front cover (apparently in the author's handwriting). Inscribed by the author on the half-title. Inscription reads "Joe Try This One, Rich". White Slave is a classic adventure story of modern-day heroes and villains, with a daring heroine who battles against terrible odds for her youth and lost innocence. In a ruthless act of revenge, the teenage Kim Mitchell is abducted from her school's locker room and held prisoner on a remote West Indies island. For seven years, her girlhood is enslaved to Wilson Kane, a fugitive drug czar. A victim of Kane's murderous moods and frequent beatings, Kim grows to maturity waiting only for an opportunity to escape the island stronghold. When she finally grabs her chance for freedom, readers will be rooting for her all the breathless way. The rest of the story is a heart-stoping chase through the steamy Venezuelan jungle, culminating in a daring rescue on the squalid island of Carib. Along the way, Richard Owen's beautiful young heroine learns to trust--and love--again. White Slave is a roller-coaster read, from a consummate storyteller. Richard Owen's momentum will carry his readers, along with his other victims, to an explosive climax. Derived from an article in Publishers Weekly: Kim Mitchell is the 13-year-old star pitcher for her Foxhaven, Conn., baseball team. She is also the daughter of Tom Mitchell, a sharp, drugbusting D.A. who retired from New York's fast-paced, high-profile world of crime and justice at the peak of his career to move to the suburbs and enjoy the quiet life. But Kim is kidnapped and spends the next seven years on the West Indian island of Carib as the ""crazy white mistress'' of Wilson Kane, the ruthless, rich and twisted (he has a penchant for young girls) drug overlord who Mitchell almost brought down. Pseudonymous author Owen does well here with an assortment of peculiar characters bent on revenging or fulfilling vendettas and a plot that is well handled and interesting. This thriller's real distinction, however, comes from its well-drawn tropical locations. Owen, a former UPI bureau chief in the Caribbean and Latin America, writes of jungles, shanties, squalor and corruption in this part of the world with confidence, creating arresting images and raising provocative questions.