The Remnant

The Remnant, Georgia Flosi, Acorn Publishing, 2001

FBI Agent Shari Rigel keeps a very close watch on a religious cult located somewhere in the wilds of Alaska. Known as The Remnant, they are led by a man named Brother Will. It's a place where families are split up, and all new members are required to sign over all their worldly assets to Brother Will. Despite this, he manages to stay just on the right side of the law.

Rigel has good reason for her near-obsession with Brother Will. As a child, she and her brother, Andy, were the only survivors of Jonestown in Guyana, when over 800 people killed themselves at the behest of Rev. Jim Jones. Shari knows something about religious cults, from the inside.

She discovers that Brother Will has his own mass suicide plan, with the intention of making it look like the FBI again got trigger happy. Meantime, on the inside, Maya Webster secretly gets her daughter, Crystal, out of The Remnant and away from Brother Will. It's bad enough that Crystal is about to have Brother Will's baby. The proverbial last straw is that Brother Will plans to make Crystal his fifth wife. Crystal is 12 years old.

Maya agrees to lead Shari back inside, to save as many children as possible, before the FBI fulfills its part of Brother Will's "prophecy." Shari's single-minded pursuit of Brother Will leads to the deaths of 17 children, trained to throw themselves on live grenades when the end comes. Shari is officially cleared of blame in their deaths, but considers herself responsible.

For anyone who has a family member involved in a religious cult, or anyone who has recently left a cult, this is an obvious must read. It feels like the author knows more than the average person about cults. For everyone else, this is an interesting and well done page turner that is very plausible, and is very much recommended.