From Publishers Weekly
Though he is better known for his international thrillers, in this slim paean to controversial dolphin therapy Land makes this second foray into softer terrain, following Hope Mountain. After abusing and abandoning his first wife and daughter, Vietnam vet and alcoholic Mike Fontana is himself abandoned by his second wife, who leaves him with their young son, Joe. The responsibility of being a single parent motivates Mike to sober up, and just in time, for within a year Joe is diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. When the boy's cancer goes into remission, a development attributed in part to dolphin-human therapy, Mike opens up his own healing center, Dolphin Key, in Key Biscayne, Fla., where he helps disabled children overcome their handicaps with the assistance of half a dozen captive dolphins. Meanwhile, Mike locates Katy, his daughter from his first marriage; she is in prison serving a two-year sentence for a series of juvenile crimes. Mike offers to effect Katy's release out in return for six months of volunteer community service at Dolphin Key, hoping the dolphins will work yet another miracle on his recalcitrant daughter, and also bring father and daughter closer together. The plot thickens: an animal rights activist is determined to shut down Dolphin Key, Joe's cancer appears to have come back and Katy's justifiable anger spurs her to sabotage Mike's good works. Will the dolphins keep Mike from drinking, cure Joe again, soothe Katy's anger? Is there a Clarence Darrow-type character willing to volunteer his services and save the center? The formulaic plot fosters little suspense, but Land does a credible job of presenting the perspectives of both animal rights activists and supporters of dolphin-human therapy. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Land abandons his usual thriller format (The Pillars of Solomon, p. 169, etc.) to instruct and entertain us with a medical suspense tale about the healing powers of dolphins. These aquatic mammals in the Florida Keys are part of a research program in Dolphin Human Therapy. Naturally friendly toward man, they enjoy helping disabled and autistic children gain faith in themselves and grow by interacting with them. The childrensome legless, armless, or both; others walled in by autistic mutismbreak out of their spiritual cocoons by feeding and playing with the dolphins. (Land bases his story on a real-life program.) The dolphins, theoretically, may help humans recover from illnesses by echolocation, sending sounds into the molecules of sick people, who can feel the vibrations right in their bones, and by rebuilding these molecules without the illness. Land also depicts members of an environmentalist group, cast as the villains who want captive dolphins returned to the wild. They take the research program to court; the climax finds the child-loving dolphins themselves acting as witnesses at the hearing. Only the meanest critic could carp at such well-intentioned storytelling, although environmentalists as the heavies seems a little mean-spirited itself. --
Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
