Sweat by Mark Gilleo

Sweat. Mark Gilleo. The Story Plant. August 2012. 366 pages. Available in trade paperback and E-book format. ISBN #: 9781611880519.

Senator Day and Peter Winthrop are on a trip to Saipan, meeting Lee Chang, the owner of a factory.  They will make a movie about the fine working conditions and fine quality product being produced.  Simple story, right?  Wrong!  That will be the most placid scene the reader will experience because the remainder of the book immediately turns into a frenetic paced race to upend the "bad guys," as it used to be called. For the Senator and Peter have a bit of feminine entertainment after their business is over, never realizing the after effects will change their world forever!

Mark Gilleo has written a novel about the outsourcing of labor to countries where workers produce in "sweatshop" conditions, where one pregnant girl is just a burden to be discarded, that is until her workers mastermind a way to bring public attention to the young girl's plight.  It is Jake Patrick who takes a summer internship while awaiting his future academic studies.  It is he who shows little interest in his father's business until he receives a secret message and enlists others to help solve what he perceives to be a devastating injustice and soon enough finds to be an international scandal.

Jake initially has no idea what and who he is up against - the Chinese businessman who thinks nothing of killing employees; a doctor who is willing to lie and perform other unethical acts to guarantee his paradise living, a town detective chief who follows one law and it's not one created by any government, a government representative who prides himself more on fostering business and generating money than caring for the precious gift of life, and so much more.

Sweat is a political thriller that will engage any and all readers.  It's all too real a possibility and it is the hope of a young idealistic man who guarantees that integrity is larger than all the dirt bags taking advantage of the few for the almighty "buck!"  Very well written and highly recommended!!!