In this ripped-from-the-headlines thriller, six extreme athletes (some are disabled teen military veterans) on a charity cruise are taken hostage by the Lord's Resistance Army and ushered into the African jungle by a band of child soldiers. Personal challenges--and a romance--add to the (somewhat contrived) drama in this novel long on exoticism and a little short on meaning.

From the author of Torn (2013) comes another intense, suspenseful adventure set in a contemporary war zone. As an "able-bodied" addition to a crew of teenage disabled Afghanistan War vets set on sailing a yacht around the world, Rio Cruz initially gets an understandably mixed reception. Still, for her, the plan to take a yacht around the globe is a dream trip, which turns into a nightmare when the boat sinks in the Indian Ocean, and she and the rest of the crew are taken hostage by child soldiers of the murderous African guerilla group called the Lord's Resistance Army. Brutal tests of bodies and spirit ensue as the six captives me with prosthetic limbs, others with healing skin grafts, diabetes, and burns e forced to trek across Tanzania with little by way of food or medical supplies. Without resorting to more than briefly explicit detail, the author displays a rare talent for making terrifying situations seem real and immediate, and by the book's conclusion, readers will deeply affected by the vulnerable, stubbornly resilient characters.