Personal opinion

This was our first Iris Johansen book. It was easy to understand, very interesting to read and enjoyable. The author knows very well how to grab her readers. No One To Trust is a thriller with suspense, running, hiding and adventure. “There are plenty of action scenes for those readers who like high drama thrills and heart-pumping action.” (Harriet Klausner, http://www.allreaders.com/Topics/info_13487.asp)

All these things kept us going from the beginning to the end. It has the right amount of

mystery and romance at the same time. In addition, a few characters are very

impressive. Elena Kyler intrigued us with her tough attitude as well as with her love for

her son; and Sean Galen is remarkable for his tireless encourage and help.

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Description of the Main Characters

Elena Kyler:	She is a rebel from the hills of Columbia, an assassin trained by the military and a loner. She has a brother, Luis, who takes drugs and has betrayed her. Barry is her son. She wants to protect him from Rico, so she contacts the DEA (Drug authority) and asks for help.

Rico Chavez:	He is a drug lord of Columbia, the boss of the Chavez cartel. He is the most terrifying of killers: ruthless, charismatic and cunning. A man, who takes pleasure in destroying people and who always gets what he wants. He is a rapist and the father of Barry.

Sean Galen:	He goes his own way and doesn't like to work with the DEA. But he helps John Logan to get Elena, Barry and Dominic into the USA. After a while Elena and he get a little bit closer and they sleep together.

Judd Morgan:	He takes care of Galen’s house. He hasn't much money, so he kidnaps Barry to make a deal with Chavez to get money.

Dominic Sanders:	He is a priest and a teacher. He is a good friend of Elena's and like a father for Barry.

John Logan:	He is a successful tycoon and a man from the DEA. He organises the escape of Elena, Barry and Dominic into the USA. But he is shot by one of his own men in the first hiding-place in the USA.

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Summary:

Elena Kyler, a rebel from the hills of Columbia and sitting in jail, contacts John Logan, a man from the DEA. She tells him that she has evidence against Chavez, a cruel drug lord. Logan and Galen travel together to Columbia, at the same time Elena breaks out from jail. Somewhere out they meet. They flee into the hills to Dominic’s house because Chavez’s men are searching for Elena.

Elena and Galen don’t like each other very much, Elena doesn’t know if she can trust him. At Dominic’s house Galen and Logan come to know that Elena has a son called Barry. The problem is, he’s also the son of Chavez. A few years ago she was raped by Chavez. Now the time has come Elena wants to talk about her plan. The two guys should take her, Barry and Dominic to the USA. Chavez would follow because he wants Barry, and the DEA could catch him. So Galen organises a helicopter and at the last moment they can flee from Chavez’s group. From the air they can see Dominic’s house burning. Elena, Barry and Dominic are now in the USA, somewhere out in a house far away from big towns, protected by Logan’s men. They have told Barry they are going to have an adventure. One of Logan’s men informs Chavez about the stay. The drug lord attacks again and Logan is shot down by one of his own men. Galen can flee with the rest.

After a short stay at a friend’s flat they go to Galen’s house which is also far away from civilisation. There is Judd Morgan, who takes care of the house. They stay in this house for a long time, but all the time in fear of Chavez. It is only a question of time until he will come. Judd trains fighting with Elena every day, so she becomes ready for Chavez. The relationship between Elena and Galen is getting better. One evening Elena asks Galen if he wants to sleep with her. She hasn’t ever slept with anyone since Chavez raped her and now she wants to replace bad experiences with good ones. Galen agrees and it happens. From a friend Galen gets the news that Chavez is on the way to his house. And Galen decides go to the near hills. The next day they take the plane and fly away. The new residence now is a cottage in the wilderness. From the visit to Galen’s house Chavez has his phone number. He calls Galen and as he talks with Elena he mentions that he has her brother Luis in his power and he will torture him until she gives him Barry. For Elena Barry is more important than her brother and she doesn’t want to risk her son’s life. Nevertheless they go to a meeting arranged by Chavez, where Dominic is shot by Luis. Then the unbelievable thing happens. Judd kidnaps Barry with the intention of selling him to Chavez. Judd needs money. He contacts Chavez and demands 30 million dollars for Barry. So they arrange a meeting somewhere in the hills. Judd gives the information about the meeting to Galen so that he and Elena will have a chance to interfere.

In the hills, Chavez gives a suitcase with money to Judd and Judd leaves his son to him. Elena comes and fights against Chavez. He dies as Judd shoots him from an ambush.

Judd comes back to talk with Galen; he apologises for kidnapping Barry and after that they flee out of the hills.

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An Extract From the Book

In a dark night, Elena Kyler can't sleep because she has to think about Chavez. So she moves to Barry's room to sit by his bed and watch him sleep. But he isn't there any more, which gets her into a frenzy. She goes to look for him, with the help of Sean Galen, until he finds a sheet of paper with a message.

Sorry, Galen. I have to have the money. It's the key to unlock the box I'm in. I'll call you.

Judd

The following scene from page 242 to 243 in the book shows the conversation between Elena Kyler and Sean Galen after they found the bad news from Judd. They talk about the kidnapping and think about the future.

She couldn't believe it. She suddenly remembered watching Judd smiling at Barry as her son drew back the bow he had made him. He couldn't have done this. It didn't make sense.

She had to believe it. Her son was gone.

The note dropped from her hand. “I'm going to kill him.”

“Stand in line.” Galen moved toward the door. “I'm going to get some clothes on and see if Hughes or any of his guards saw them leave. If I get any leads, I'll come back for you, Elena.”

“The hell you will.” She was already heading for her room. “Give me two minutes. I'm coming with you.”

None of the guards had seen any sign of Judd or Barry.

“I'm going to kill him,” she repeated through set teeth as they walked back to the cottage. “And if he hurts Barry, I'm going to crucify him.”

“I don't think he'll hurt him.”

“But you don't know. I never dreamed he'd take him. How can I be sure what else he'll do? The bastard is an assassin.”

“You saw something in him that made you trust him before this happened.”

“And he betrayed me. Just like Luis betrayed me.” She turned on him. “And you brought him into our lives.”

“That's true,” he said quietly.

“You should never have---“ She swallowed. “ Why am I blaming you? Barry is my responsibility. I didn't have to trust Judd, I should have seen through him.”

“I'd rather you blamed me than yourself.” He started up the porch steps. “Come on, let's get some coffee.”

She stared at him incredulously. “Sit around and drink coffee?”

“No, sit around and wait for Judd to call.”

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The Drug Business

The book describes how cruel and corrupt the drug business is. The story is a novel, by Iris Johansen. But the reality is as brutal as it is written in the book; the books shows exactly how the drug business works. It is one of the hottest, because the dealers handle huge amounts of money. Corruption and murder occur day by day. Drug lords like Chavez are very rich men, who can buy people. To get the drugs over the frontier they bribe the customs. Once in this business, there is no way back and if you make a mistake, you are a dead man. Although governments, e.g. the United States of America, try to combat the drug clans there is no big success. Governments in South America are very corrupt and they don’t stand much chance against these well structured clans. And the government of the USA cannot send their troops into countries like Columbia, because that would be against international law.

The aim is to destroy these clans, which is impossible. They make raids and from time to time they discover a freight of drugs, but that doesn’t help much. The problem is that they can’t catch the big bosses of these clans.

About the same subject there exists a movie called “Traffic”, which we can recommend a lot. There you can see very well how the drug business works. You see how the politicians handle this problem and what they try to do. It’s shown how youths take drugs and become junkies. On the one hand there are the rich drug lords with their money and on the other hand there are the junkies who become criminals. For the time being the governments aren’t able to solve the problem, because the clans have a lot of power and the governments have too many other problems.

It’s important to keep young people away from drugs, for as long as junkies exist, the drug business will exist as well.

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