It's not just in works of fiction that a Hercule Poirot or a Sherlock Holmes solves cases that baffle even the police. Investigative writer David Yallop has established a formidable reputation for himself with his real life exposes. His In God's Name, rocked the Vatican as it presented evidence that Pope John Paul I was murdered. The non-fictional book went on to become a multi-million copy bestseller. In the past, Yallop's Beyond Reasonable Doubt? also forced the police to reopen a closed case and led to the acquittal of an innocent man serving a life sentence for a crime he didn't commit.
Given such a background for investigative writing, when Yallop sets forth to write a work of fiction, it's bound to be explosive stuff. Indeed, his fictional debut, the Unholy Alliance is potent stuff. Here, he recreates the inner workings of a drug cartel and how they attempt to put up a candidate to contest the highest office in the world: the United States presidency.
The book is a racy read. And what jogs it along is the fact that most of it appears to be drawn from real life. All the gossip and tidbits that Yallop must have picked up during his investigative days but could never corroborate finds place here and it all rings very true. Indeed that is the very reason for Yallop's deviation into make believe for as he explains: "Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures."
Several characters in the book are easily identifiable. The saintly evangelist with the mass following who preaches his message through his own TV channel. The award winning yet struggling television producer who knocks from pillar to post asking channels to accept his documentary. But most of all, and terrifyingly believable, are the underworld dons who successfully run industrial conglomerates by using their laundered drug money. Companies which don't have a breath of scam attached to them but actually rely on just three products -- heroin, opium and marijuana -- for their revenues.
Yallop describes in detail the drug route -- from Burma, Laos and Thailand onwards to the United States. From Afghanistan, Pakistan to Europe. He paints a graphic picture of how the drugs are smuggled into western markets from the Latin American countries using innocent pawns who are made to swallow the stuff at gun point. Of how a market for drugs is artificially created by corrupting the young. He also gives a credible explanation of how the drug money is laundered. What's more, he claims that even organisations such as the CIA are involved in drug trafficking for their own selfish ends. And, he proceeds to expose the CIA's dubious doings in Vietnam.
Of course, all this is woven within the framework of a neat little plot with the documentary filmmaker Adam Fraser as the hero. As he proceeds to shoot a profile of the charismatic evangelist Patrick Collins, he unwittingly stumbles headlong into the conspiracy. The drug cartel has decided to promote the evangelist as their presidential candidate and are remote controlling his campaign. The irony being that Collins himself is unaware of the fact that his election campaign is being funded by drug money. Meanwhile, Collins himself has his own skeletons that he is trying to hide which Fraser is hell bent upon uncovering. He has no proof but only the conviction that no man can be as saintly and goody goody as Collins appears. Aiding him is his disgruntled CIA friend who, isolated from the American agency, has his own axe to grind and promises to expose the agency's activities.
The action flits from America to London to Paris and back again to America. Yallop builds up momentum slowly but surely and keeps you hooked till the last page. If anything, the only complaint is the end, which unlike a thriller does not really have a fairy tale conclusion. Of course, the drug
