A Young Woman's Capture, Imprisonment, and Escape in the Amazon Jungle

Jo Tartan, a high school girl from Sanibel Island, Florida, survived, against all odds, in the Peruvian Amazon. And she turned her scientist parents' expedition from a search for her into a scientific success. They found the obscure Nunca people, befriended them, and learned their secrets of enormous value, freedom from malaria and long life. Jo more than proved her mettle. Most important to her, she proved herself to expedition leader Mark Steiner who became the object of her young love. That story is told in Kain's novel, The Nunca Riddle.

A year later, the world is about to invade the shy, generous Nuncas people. In a noble but hopeless venture, the Tartans return to the Amazon to warn the Nuncas. Jo, her father and brother are captured and held for ransom by soldiers of the Red Column, Maoist guerillas bent on ruling Peru?a scenario playing out today.

The Red Column is the story of Jo's capture, imprisonment and escape. Also of the reentry into her life of Mark Steiner. It is the celebration of the guts, determination and ingenuity of this sometimes too daring young woman.

Ages 9-12