House Arrest

by Mary Morris

Book Overview

Mary Morris, called "a marvelous storyteller" by The Chicago Tribune, returns with the finest novel in her acclaimed career--a vividly etched, engrossing story of a nation, two remarkable women, and the meaning of freedom.

Taut with tension, filled with the telling observations of place and local character that grow out of her expertise as a travel writer, House Arrest is Mary Morris's richest, most powerful novel to date.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312155476
• ISBN13: 9780312155476
• Release Date: May 1997
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Playing with fire in a foreign country

For a traveler to a foreign country, part of the intrigue is that you are vulnerable to the laws that do not take your nationality as a priority. The urge to be accommodating and submissive is a response to the insecurity of not having the freedoms and protection expected in one's home country. Some travelers are challenging, some are paranoid and some are just trusting to the point of naivete'. For Maggie Conover, all or none of these responses may apply, at least for her initial visit to "la isla" in the Caribbean. A travel writer for the magazine, Easy Rider, she meets the daughter of the island's rebel leader. Isabel has grown up restricted and confined to the island, which is her prison, and her father as the jailer and ultimately the murderer of her two husbands. Maggie revisits "la isla" several years after her initial trip. As other readers retort her possible stupidity in going back to the island and risking what she ultimately risks, I can understand the woman who does go back.....There are no clear cut reasons except one, and that is all about Isabel and the mystery of her whereabouts. The reader will have a racing heart when you read about the authorities detaining her. Confined to a house arrest in a hotel, she fears her situation in an escalating climax beginning with the awareness that the room and phone have been surveiled, and the hotel staff briefed as to the seriousness of her impending charges. Of course, no one tells her what the charges may be. She is under the charge of a Major, who escorts her in a confusingly obsequious manner to various prison and detention centers for interogations. Unable to trust anyone, the secrets she carries are now compromising her very own freedom. What did she do to risk her life and make herself so vulnerable to the justice of a foreign country? An engaging book that will keep you breathing fast until the very last pages. It will make you rethink your travel plans...well, maybe!