The Great Divide

By T. Davis Bunn (Doubleday, 2000)

Genre: Fiction/Legal Thriller

Via: Library

Pages: 448

When’s the last time an unfamiliar book by an unfamiliar author knocked your socks off? Smacked you upside the head? Grabbed you by the throat and didn’t let go until the last page?

That’s what T. Davis Bunn’s The Great Divide did to us. Talk about a kibble kruncher! I’ll let Her Momness fill you in:

Lao gai.

Heard the phrase? It was new to us. But it’s apparently not new in China, where lao gais are “places to store those who become nuisances.”

Factory 101

American graduate student Gloria Hall was last seen at a lao gai in Guangdong Province. Hall was investigating slave-like labor conditions and other abuses at the infamous Factory 101 for her master’s thesis at Georgetown when she disappeared. The factory is linked to New Horizons, the world’s largest manufacturer of sports shoes and athletic gear. Desperate to find their missing daughter, Alma and Austin Hall turn to burnt-out, washed-up attorney Marcus Glenwood.

In Tatters

Haunted by paralyzing nightmares and suffocating guilt related to a tragic auto accident, Glenwood’s life is in tatters. Recently bereaved and divorced, he’s resigned from a prestigious corporate law firm and retreats to North Carolina to try to pick up the pieces of his shattered life. Glenwood reluctantly accepts the case. It’s a classic David vs. Goliath scenario. On a good day.

“I do not mean for you just to win this case,” Randall said. “I want Marcus Glenwood to be so humiliated that his name is forever erased from legal history.”

No one, including Glenwood, can believe how fast his investigation untangles a web of deceit that stretches from Washington , D.C., to Europe and Asia and back to North Carolina. With the power to obstruct, manipulate, intimidate, injure, and eliminate, the giant multinational sports company New Horizons has never lost a case. But they underestimate Marcus Glenwood.

Charlie rewarded him with a grand smile. “You heard from that Washington lawyer feller?”

“Last night.”

“He supplied us with the goods?”

“The best I’ve ever seen.”

Pitch-Perfect

Pitch-perfect pacing and relentless action coupled with mystery and intrigue serve up a feast for the heart, mind, and soul in this legal thriller.

“The guys with the fat wallets are not interested in backing an administration that focuses on human rights. Or even on a missing American. Those who bankroll the election campaigns want free trade, open borders, hands off everything to do with making money.”

You’re at the edge of your seat as this skillful writer unfolds a razor-sharp story that’ll grab you by the scruff of the neck and smack you upside the head. The author pulls you into a world that includes Chinese factory prisons, services in a black church that raise the roof, shadowy Chinese players, the polished halls of a high-powered defense law firm, an overgrown and ramshackle North Carolina slave cemetery, ruthless foreign firms looking for clout in Asian markets, and federal court.

There’s also a kidnapping. Murder. Corruption at the highest levels. A web of greed and deceit stretching from Washington, D.C. to Europe to Asia to Glenwood’s back yard. And the courthouse. Along the way readers are treated to Southern breakfast tables groaning with goodness and delicious home cooking as well as heaping helpings of that famous Southern hospitality.

“I’ve known good folks and bad, Marcus. And the best kind of folks are those who give more than they take.”

Characterizations

The characterizations in this lightning-fast thriller are top-notch. Marcus Glenwood is a Jake Brigance-ish lawyer. Defense attorney Logan Kendall makes pond scum look good. There’s also defense attorney Suzie Rikkers. She gives tarantulas a bad name. Scene stealer: Deacon Wilbur. Talk about a heart of gold. Our favorite character, paws down.

A voice too kind and too caring to ever appear in his nightmare world murmured, “It’s all right, brother. The Lord is here. He knows.”

Now, if The Great Divide was just a legal thriller, it’d be a darn good read. But it’s more than that. It’s an eloquent and heartfelt tribute to family, faith, and friendship. To loyalty. Perseverance. Courage. Fighting for the underdog despite seemingly overwhelming odds and a stacked deck. Speaking up for those who can’t speak for themselves. Protecting the innocent. Defending the weak. Kindness. Compassion. Dedication. It’s about doing the right thing when no one’s looking. And perhaps most of all, The Great Divide is about love.

“Daddy?”

It’s brilliant.

$.50

Mom and I? We grabbed The Great Divide at a library book sale. For fifty cents. May be the best fifty cents we ever spent.

In One Sitting

Utterly absorbing and uber engaging, we read this gripping novel cover to cover in one sitting. Couldn’t put it down! And although it took us over twenty years to finally find this title – better later than never – you can bet we’re keeping an eye out for more from this talented author.

Our Rating: 5.0

 

 

 

 

Image credit: NC flag. Public domain.