Necessary Evil
   David Dun
  2001 Pinnacle Books/Kensington Pub. NY USA
   ISBN: 0786013982


In a savage snowstorm in the rugged Californian high country, an expert mountaineer & a female FBI agent find the wreckage of a private jet. In its twisted fuselage is a litter of mangled corpses, a set of research folders & a mess of broken vials labeled with the names of deadly diseases.

Tracks in the snow indicate just one survivor left the wreck. Inside the passengers appear to have killed each other off in a shootout. Where was the plane going? Who does it belong to? What brought it down? Who was the survivor & why is one volume of DNA research binders missing?

In Necessary Evil, David Dun introduces us to Kier Wintripp, a Tilok Indian by half his blood & most of his choice. A white man by his training & reservation veterinarian by trade, he is making way to his sister's delivery at the local private clinic where she's going to have to give her infant away. Kier has no trust for white people.

We also come across Jessie Mayfield, an FBI agent used to city life, offices with computers & telephones on every corner. She is obsessed with figuring out her next career step & is torn to pieces by the betrayal of her mentor. She is on leave, visiting her very pregnant sister, nearby the Tilok Reservation. Jessie has no trust in men.

These two clash on a winding road in the first snowstorm of winter which sets the tone of their relationship until a foe with deadly intentions, unlimited finances & an army of mercenaries threatens them & all they hold real & valuable.

I don't usually write reviews about adventure books - they used to occupy my commutes from home to work & back; would keep me company on longer trips or while I waited for an interview, boat, train or aeroplane. We pick up those books at supermarkets, stations & pharmacies. That's how I found Patricia Murphy's The Falling Woman which has become a classic with its place of honor on my shelf. Not surprisingly it won its author an award! I sure hope Necessary Evil wins David Dun an award because it's that good!

As Clive Cussler - a favorite adventure writer - comments on Necessary Evil's cover: “Escapist fiction of the first order.” Escapist in more senses than one. Reminds me of Louis L'Amour's Last of the Breed - survival in the wilds; dawning awareness of one's surroundings; good, clean courage & determination; deep & dark secrets; heroes & heroines who are wounded yet able to heal; men gripped by evil - its arrogance, its morality & its profits; the hunter & the hunted & a delicious dose of Tilok wisdom to flavor the game - oh yes, & a thoughtful & evocative love story!

I squirmed when Jessie had to enter the Worm's Way or take cover in a snow hut or when she waded into a freezing beaver pond to forage for their supper. I enjoyed her unabashed eagerness to learn even as she's seething with unexpressed resentment against the most macho man she's ever met. Seething at being treated as if she were fragile; seething with her memories of her mentor's betrayal. I know how that seething can be a motivator & after months of being an office worker, now this FBI agent has the opportunity to test just about everything she ever learnt at Quantico.

I walked behind Kier into deep snow, along high ridges & through the caverns below. Listening & reading the land like a map. What takes this mass media book out of the common pulp fiction pool is how much a reader learns. I'm sure there are going to nay-sayers who scoff at David Dun's efforts to describe survival tactics in the dead of winter during a snow storm, I'm sure some petty-eyed expert is going to detect an error here & there - I don't want to be taken out of my bliss - I enjoyed this read immensely - lusty, lethal, loping & lively!

A heady concoction of wilderness trekking, super spelunking & interesting dysfunctional macho/feminist encounters all mixed in with genetic research, killer diseases & mercenaries.

I was sorry when Necessary Evil came to its satisfying end, the way I'm sorry when a good song, a fine meal or a lovely day must end.

Do catch my Interview with this newest thriller writer!
(05/20/01)

Rebecca