BENEFICIAL STRANGERS

Suspense story about a cultural victim of our time. Girl of 12 is abducted in the American Deep South, taken into the narco-porn world of a low-level pimp in suburban Rio. An Olivia Twist tale 150 years after Dickens. She fares worse than the Elizabeth Smart case in the American West. We first meet Leslie as she is freed by her captors at the edge of the jungle sick and drugged, placed in harm's way. She pluckily persists in walking with fatigue and fever for over 50 miles without a decent meal into central Rio. Until she lies in a doorway too weak to get up. With passers by not stopping. Until one does. To feed her life-saving lemon drops. And then get her to a hospital. Ordinary people she encounters, each by chance, find the good will to form a link-by-link chain of civilized help that allows her to make a safe return against all odds. Tastefully told in 190 fast-read pp with a character-driven action-thriller finish.