Relief - by Klaus Jakelski (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Surgeon Frank Lambert is suffering from PTSD, volunteering to serve in one danger zone after another to escape the emptiness of his life and soul.

Sent to disintegrating, civil war-ridden Yugoslavia, Frank is stationed at a United Nations health mission serving the medical needs of ravaged locals. What he discovers is a stream of young women, Christian and Moslem, seeking his help to eradicate the results of ethnic cleansing.

The mission holds secrets. Colonel Richter, mission commander, has his own ideas of running a good operation; Father John, the chaplain, has a dark secret he cannot escape; even the cooking staff are conflicted in their loyalties. But UN Liaison Hradich is the most enigmatic. And the young women keep streaming into the mission, seeking abortions, threatening to overwhelm Frank. Only Gwen Pakin, a nurse with her own demons from prior campaigns, is able to understand Frank's turmoil.

Evacuation is the only choice as the casualties mount, the roads are mined, supplies dwindle, and the sound of bombs approach. Loyalties fray, mistakes are made, and Frank has to make the final decision as helicopters come in single file to take the survivors out.

Review Quotes

In Relief, Klaus Jakelski delivers another taut, richly-imagined thriller. The prose is elegant and the tension cranks steadily toward an intense--and surprising--climax.

--Sean Costello, author of Here After