When Danya Biton, a former Mossad assassin, and her new friend Toby Riddle attend a peaceful protest on Alcatraz Island in support of Native American rights, they have no idea what is headed their way. An extremist Native American militia group captures the island and takes the two hundred-plus visitors, including the peaceful protestors, hostage. And they don’t plan for a happy ending. They’re demanding the return of all indigenous people’s land taken when treaties were broken or they will lay waste to San Francisco Bay area.

It falls to Danya to work out how to prevent disaster, but at what cost? She’s in a pretty tough spot, hunted by adversaries but also by her own former agency. But she can’t abandon her friend or the other hostages to what could be a tragic fate.

Mr. Edlund takes the opportunity in Judgment at Alcatraz to both educate and entertain the reader. In this thriller, not everyone is willing to peacefully educate those who may not know what has happened in the past and what they want done to remedy the situation in the present. Some are willing to sacrifice whomever they need to – innocent or not – to get to their end goal. 

3 stars