• Eric E. Wright’s second novel, Captives of Minara is a fast-moving adventure and mystery novel. Josh Radley returns to Pakistan, on a freelance assignment for a 4500 year old Indus excavation in an ancient river bed. In his second adventure, don’t expect Josh to run into suicide bombers, presidential candidate assassins or runaway Al Qaeda members. Instead, Josh and his accompanying family, wife Stephanie and daughter Janice discover a realistic Pakistan split between warm and humane people and a well organised gang involved in corruption, murder and human trafficking.
   

The day of his arrival, Josh’s gracious and powerful host is implicated in the kidnapping of a young woman from a poor nomad tribe. Recent thefts and suspicious deaths greet him at the excavation dig. The suspense escalates when the fabled Khyber Mail Express train to Lahore is violently attacked. The race to rescue the kidnapped young women is on, and with it, the social and political fabric of Pakistani’s society unravels. Will the involvement of the military save her? Will the corrupt local police keep the military away from the investigation? When is enough corruption, torture and killing enough? Will the family recover from its ordeal? 
   

Superb characters supplement the breathtaking and page-turning suspense that makes Captives such a great read. Strong, intelligent and credible, the major characters are realistic with fears, doubts and flaws. Their occasional poor judgement helps the intrigue. Josh, our protagonist who narrates the tale, is riddled with personal problems: marriage, financial, and he is haunted with a personal childhood trauma. Regardless, Josh and his family seem to recover amazingly well from their adventures. All is well that ends - maybe a little too - well. Or does it really?
   

The true tour de force in Captives is in the handling of the many contrasting aspects of the ancient and modern Pakistanis social, political, cultural and religious fabric against the Western world. The juxtaposition of extreme wealth and extreme poverty exposes the stark reality of the status of women and the poor. Yet, Eric shows us that, in a country founded on religious fundamentalism, people from different religion can help each other out with tolerance, warmth, and humanity. Eric knows Pakistan well, as he lived there as a young missionary.
   

Captives of Minara is not just another well written adventure novel; it is a thoughful and well delivered exposé of modern Pakistan. As such, we can place Captives of Minara in the same class as The Constant Gardener by John Le Carré. In Eric’s own words: “Pakistan is a key 'character' in the book; the good and the bad. I wanted to leave the reader with a sense that Pakistanis, as people, have real empathy for those who suffer as Janice did.[...] And I wanted her, like many of those I have known, to really want to give Pakistan a second chance.” Eric accomplished his goal remarkably well. Suicide bombers, presidential candidate assassins and runaway Al Qaeda members are only specs in a complex society.”