Desperate Measures: The Gripping Drama of a Private Investigator's Dangerous Mission to Free a Mother's Young Children from a Bizarre Reli

by Michael Intravia

The soldiers searching the darkened courtyard carried .45s. Grenades dangled from the belts of their camouflage fatigues. Suddenly one of the soldiers stopped and turned. He looked directly at Mike who was only partially hidden by the foliage. Mike knew why the soldiers were there. The only question now was one of logistics. Would they kill him on the spot or drag him into the dense Thai jungle first? Before taking on the assignment, private detective Mike Intravia knew the odds could be better. Much better. Vivian Shillander, frightened and frustrated, had turned to Mike to free her children from the clutches of the bizarre Children of God, a worst-of-the-worst international religious cult in which women become what some news reporters called "prostitutes for Jesus," and young children are forced to beg in the streets.

For Mike, difficulties and danger lay ahead. Maybe he could find the children. Maybe he could bring them back. Maybe not. The chances he figured were 50-50 at best. He had gone up against the Children of God before. A 20/20 news feature. Now a spellbinding first-hand account from the man who engineered ... Desperate Measures.

200 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2000