Jean Marcoux

"Searching for Pilar" is a page-turner with a message: Sex slavery is alive and well in America, including in my backyard in Houston, Texas. Patricia Hunt Holmes's character development is such that it is difficult to put the book down. Pilar, a young Mexican mother dissappears after answering a fake job ad, where she is drugged and captured by traffickers. She, however finds the stength to stay alive and help a thirteen-year-old girl captured with her do the same. Pilar's brother, Diego, felt responsible for her disappearance, and matures from a aimless boy to a resolute man. He searches for her, for months, despite despite threats from traffickers, and being in a strange country, unaware of it's culture or laws. Holmes's law background is felt throughout the book. I appreciated the notion that the Federal procecutor had a reputation for "getting convictions at any cost." I highly recommed this book.