The Great Divide (Marcus Glenwood Series #1)
Gloria Hall has gone missing in China, where she went to investigate and  expose slave labor conditions. The prison camp she ends up in is a factory for a  big American corporation. Marcus Glenwood is a formerly successful corporate  lawyer who has retreated to a house on the wrong side of the tracks after an  auto accident in which his two small children are killed. Gloria's sacrifice and  Marcus's redemption are the larger themes of this moving and engrossing novel of  international trade practices and personal salvation.Marcus agrees to represent Gloria's parents in a legal battle to hold New  Horizons, the world's largest manufacturer of sports shoes and athletic gear,  accountable for the disappearance of their daughter. But his investigation is  hampered from the beginning by his former colleagues, who represent New  Horizons, and by powerful lobbyists and associates of the Chinese government,  who will not hesitate to use any means possible--including murder--to keep their  gruesome practices a secret. With his resources limited to a canny retired judge  and the mysterious woman who was Gloria's closest friend, Marcus sets out on a  David and Goliath-like battle against a mighty corporation with powerful  political backers and corrupt trading partners determined to stop him.In the wake of increasing political protest against the abuse of workers in  third world countries who manufacture goods sold by American companies, the  outlines of Bunn's plot are particularly timely. The theme of the burned-out  lawyer taking on a mighty corporation and its anything-for-a-win legal minions,  however, has been used by many others, most notably John Grisham, for nearly a  decade. What makes this novel exceptionally powerful is its deep spiritual core.  The scene in which Marcus painfully relives the accident that shattered his  world and confronts the loving presence of the only force that can absolve his  guilt and heal his soul is remarkable: "There within the church the shadow  formed more clearly still, gliding on slippered feet. The shroud it carried  wrapped him up so tightly that Marcus felt his hold on the church and the  comforting noise slip away until he could scarcely hear anything save the  frantic beating of his terrified heart. He sat there, trapped and helpless to do  anything save observe the approach of his own eternal night." The secondary  characters are as well drawn as the protagonists, and Bunn's writing has moments  of real beauty and clarity. While the plot doesn't move as quickly as it might,  and the sympathetic judge who presides over the courtroom leaves herself wide  open to appellate review, neither detracts from the powerful resonance of this  well written novel.--Jane Adams