Finding family and stability within the group, Heather embraced the life until people close to her began dying. Attempting to flee with her newborn, she was charged with his murder. The fringe religious community of Messiah’s Tribes denied it was a cult, but the focus on one man – Yonatan, who claimed to be Jehobah’s disciple – had all the markings of one, using mind control, and, if necessary, violence to keep members in line.
In the beginning, Heather was content with her new life. Now know as Havah, she married David, and they began a family. While the women in the group cared for each other, Havah was oblivious to the fact that some of those women were spies for the Wisemen, those who wielded power over others, often dealing out cruel punishments for those who did not fall into line.
When people close to the couple begin to die under mysterious circumstances, Havah and David plan their escape. Instead, Havah is left on her own to leave with her newborn. When the baby dies, she calls the police and is arrested.
Although Heather has been estranged from her parents, Barbara and Richard Garner quickly step in to help, taking in Heather’s three children and hiring Abby Harris to represent their daughter.
Defending a woman accused of killing her own baby was never anything Abby Harris had on her agenda. Pregnant with her own child after a one night stand, Abby experiences the beginnings of motherly love. Reacting to every kick she feels from the baby girl in her womb, she somehow knows that Havah/Heather would never kill her child. But when even some of her best friends question her decision and place some distance between them, she must depend on the other women in her small firm for support.
Mari Howes’ The Tribes is more than a legal thriller. As the narrative toggles between Heather’s transformation into a member of Messiah’s Tribes, to her realization that she and her children are in danger, Howes lays bare how cults operate. Naomi first lured Heather into the cult, and left shortly after Heather did. The pull of the group’s influence, along with the idea that those who lived in such a controlled environment found the outside world overwhelming, only increased the pressure to stay. Education was banned and those who did leave had few skills and trouble finding employment. At the end of the book, Heather doesn’t doubt that many who escaped would soon go back.
While using drugs of any kind, legal and illegal, was prohibited in the community, the members of the cult become addicted to a way of life that traps its victims. It’s not a stretch to compare present day cults in the political arena to Messiah’s Tribes. What will it take for those people to escape?
The Tribes
Mari Howes
Top Shutterstock photo by SvetaZi
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