Robert Thornhill is a high CIA official; married to wealth, he leads a life of privilege. He is one of a secret unsanctioned committee dedicated to reestablishing the CIA’s preeminent position in the governmental investigative hierarchy. No tactic is too illegal or immoral for their purpose. Thornhill believes that Faith Lockhart may potentially jeopardize their existence by approaching the FBI, and he orders her assassination.

Danny Buchanan is a highly successful congressional lobbyist. For years he worked for organizations such as the tobacco industry to influence Congress to pass bills favorable to his clients. Trips to undeveloped nations convinced him that the world’s poorest poor needed an advocate. Using his personal wealth, he has been bribing susceptible members of Congress to pass aid bills to countries that would otherwise be ignored. Now it is Danny who is vulnerable to pressure.

Faith Lockhart is Buchanan’s long-time assistant and near-surrogate daughter. She is aware that their efforts on behalf of the world’s disadvantaged, although admirable, are not legal. For the past year she has suspected Danny has been involved in something more disreputable. She has contacted the FBI hoping to cut a deal that will give them immunity in return for their testimony against others.

Lee Adams, a private investigator, has been hired by an anonymous client to follow Faith. When he stakes out an isolated cottage, he observes Faith arrive with an FBI agent. A hired assassin shoots and kills the agent, but due to Lee’s intervention, fails to kill his intended target. Lee wounds the assassin, grabs Faith, and flees. Soon, an unidentified force of men locate them at his apartment, and they barely escape. Several parties are now hot on their trail.

Brooke Reynolds is the FBI agent who has been Faith’s contact. She is the mother of two young children and in the process of getting a divorce. She is stretched thin by the demands of family and career ambitions. By chance, she was not with Faith the evening she was killed. Now it is imperative that she locate the missing Faith and uncover the agent’s murderer.

The standard thriller formula features an intrepid hero battling the evil forces that would destroy or pervert civilization as we know it. In the over-populated Saving Faith, it’s pretty hard to pick out the hero because nearly all the characters are venal and self-serving. The hero -- or the character closest to that description -- isn’t battling evil forces as much as he’s running for his life with the pretty girl. Lee Adams has a hard body, some techno-telecommunications skills, and the solitary life style of the traditional thriller hero, but his moral fiber has a few weak spots. When the best indication that a guy’s the hero is getting the girl in the sack, he’s not much of a hero.

Of course, he’s in competition with a number of other characters for equal time. There are five characters sharing top billing all trying to work the system to their own advantage. As the novel jumps from one character’s perspective to another, readers can become a little confused as to whom they’re supposed to be rooting for. None of them deserves a place on a pedestal. The female characters seem a little more principled than the male -- and vastly more than the morally bankrupt Thornhill -- but it’s a close call. When Lee thinks to himself that Danny Buchanan deserves to be called a saint, it’s definitely a sign of skewed values.

The book’s pacing suffers from the multitude of main characters. The story unfolds chapter-by-chapter a character at a time. Readers have to shift mental gears regularly as the focus switches from one individual to another. There might be more thrills if the author had chosen to focus primarily on the adventures of Faith and Lee.

The plot also has some holes. Bad guys show up with split-second timing time after time at one location after another. Other than to keep the plot on a roll, there’s little explanation of why, instead of dodging the bad guys from D.C. to North Carolina, Faith and Lee don’t just call for help. After all, Faith already has an FBI contact. Readers will need to put their willing suspension of disbelief on cruise control to swallow much of this implausible tale.

A three-star rating means the book is acceptable. That’s a pretty fair description of Saving Faith. Readers may want to think about saving their $26.95.

--Lesley Dunlap