Samantha and Monte Waters are sisters, who take a vacation to the heritage city of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. This normal tourism by two mid-life Americans to a festival catches the attention of those with bad intent. An explosion in the square starts a horror story for the ladies, full of abduction, challenges and death.   THE FAR SIDE OF THE DESERT is a powerful novel, full of locations I’ve visited, and richly described. The initial festival in Spain is just across the narrow neck of the Mediterranean from North Africa. The terrorists want a hostage, and finding that Monte is with the U.S. diplomatic service was enough to pin a target on her. She comes around in a shabby canvas tent in Morocco. Nobody knows where she is, and it’s weeks before her initial captor, Stephen, or Safi, returns. In the meantime, she’s been abused by guards and half-starved. Meanwhile, Samantha, a foreign correspondent, is using all her resources to seek her sister.   Another location is Gibraltar, one of the Pillars of Hercules. Money changes hands here, into anonymous companies, hiding corruption, sales of arms, drugs and blood diamonds. The sales may be organised from the Sahara Desert, but it’s hard to spend money among the dunes. We also travel with Samantha to see her family and Monte’s husband and kids in Washington D.C. Samantha has to live with the thought that she let down the ideals of her parents, who were both highly placed State servants, but journalism is her life. Only, in a cold touch of realism, she sees top stories being given to younger versions of herself.   Stephen or Safi is a man trying to play both sides; he wants to be a famous writer, but abducting a woman to do that is no way to accomplish good ends. The overall murkiness around his activities reveals some of the ongoing corruption and motivations of terrorist warlords. The real heroes are undeniably Samantha and Monte, who are both thrown into the company of dangerous men and just try to help themselves and others.   Author Joanne Leedom-Ackerman has worked as a journalist and understands the pressures and excitements of the job. She brings us a book full of realism and tension, strong connections, sisterly love, and grim prospects. I find THE FAR SIDE OF THE DESERT a gripping read for many reasons.