Zona de Despeje Book

Something is happening in The Demilitarized Zone in Columbia.

How did 2 environmentalists and a native end up dead? The world cries out for an answer.

The guerrillas allow reporters into the DMZ to see that it wasn't by their hands.

But the past Julie has in Columbia unwittingly makes her a target. Who thinks she knows more than she does? What even is it that she's supposed to know? Who can she trust? And who was it that suspected her and turned her in to start with?

A great suspense set mainly against the backdrop of the Columbian rainforest.


I loved by Jeanette Windle back in February, which was one of those treasures that had been sitting on my Kindle for over 2 years waiting for me to read it, so when The DMZ appeared as a Kindle deal, I treated myself to the book.

The one thing that did make me gulp was that the story has a length of 505 pages, but suspense is my favourite genre and I appreciated the previous book I'd read by Jeanette Windle, so I decided to go for it, and while it did take me ages to read, I did enjoy that reading time.

Not only is the story length long, but the chapter lengths are long too, and quite often without scene/paragraph breaks, which I found quite difficult because finding a suitable stopping place in the midst of the chapter was hard, and while sometimes I could read to the end of the chapter or break, quite often I couldn't and just had to leave it hanging and then try and pick up the thread later. My advise to anyone reading this is if you only have 5 minutes to do some reading then this really isn't the book to choose for that short time. Choose a time when you have 20-30 mins available and you'll have a chance to get a chapter finished. It's a great story, and one I do recommend reading, but it will be better appreciated if you have the time to enjoy it properly.

There are an awful lot of characters to keep track of, yet they are all valuable and needed for the story so as you go through you might want to make a list of who is who so you can refer back to it at the times when you haven't seen them for a while, they appear again and you're trying to place them.

Jeanette has done an unusual thing in this story. Usually the hero and heroine are introduced fairly early on so the reader establishes a rapport with them and follows their progress through. Not so with this story. The stage is set with several different scenes first to give the reader the background information which is vital for the rest of the story...miss that and you are going to be lost! There is a lot of information given at the beginning but it is given in a readable way as part of the story, and I like how she presented it. It was different. It does work. Sometimes you might wonder where it is going, but stick with it because it will all come clear, and you'll realise why it was done that way.

The theme of the story was amazing and very well presented: "Except the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit." John 12:24. This verse was central to the story and the topic of sacrifice was explored from many angles. I loved how Jeanette Windle seamlessly wove this into the plot.

Some reviewers have complained about Julie and her character and temperament. I would say she is an accurate portrayal of many children who have parents in Christian leadership, be it missionaries like Julie's were, or pastors, youth leaders, evangelists. I would say most have experienced the feelings Julie has, even if it was only temporary and they moved on. I felt Jeanette brought to light that aspect of children whose parents are in ministry rather well and it just reminds us that when we pray for our church leaders and missionaries, we need to doubly pray for their children. I would love to see more when missionaries are sent out and have prayer partners, that the children themselves receive a specific prayer partner for them.

So, a very involved story that will take a long time to read, but definitely worth it!