Arthur Hailey’s "The Evening News," Summary

The 1990 novel "Evening News" is a gripping industrial thriller that delves into the behind-the-scenes workings of American television broadcasting and the drama of the fight against international terrorism. The author based the book on his in-depth personal research into the television industry and his experiences in hostage survival training.

Hostage taking in New York suburbs

The plot begins at the fictional CBA headquarters in New York City, during the preparation of the evening newscast, led by the hot-tempered editor Chuck Yinsen. A burning passenger jet crashes in Dallas. By a lucky coincidence, the CBA team — senior traveling producer Rita Abrams, veteran war journalist Harry Partridge, and cool-headed Vietnamese cameraman Minh Van Canh — finds themselves at the local airport. Their emergency footage ensures the network a triumphant broadcast, beating all competitors.

The program’s lead anchor, Crawford Sloan, anchors the program with his characteristic impeccable professionalism. Sloan and Partridge have known each other for over twenty years, dating back to their time together in the Vietnam War. In Saigon, they were professional rivals and both fell in love with the same woman, Jessica Castillo. When Partridge, out of nobility, hesitated to commit, Jessica accepted Sloan’s proposal. Years later, Crawford remains a celebrity with a million-dollar salary, and Partridge continues to work in conflict zones around the world.

Meanwhile, a group of militants has been watching Sloan’s house in the upscale village of Larchmont for over a month. The group is led by experienced mercenary Ulises Rodriguez, alias Miguel, who carries out contracts for the Peruvian Maoist organization Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) and the Medellin cocaine cartel. One morning, the presenter’s wife, Jessica, their eleven-year-old son, Nicholas, and Crawford’s father, World War II veteran Angus, who has unexpectedly arrived for a visit, go shopping at the local supermarket.

In a parking lot, bandits lure the family into a trap by lying about Crawford’s accident. Elderly Angus realizes the deception and tries to resist, but is knocked unconscious with a pistol. Former anesthesiologist Hartley Gossage (Baudelio), disbarred for drunkenness, injects all three with the powerful sedative midazolam. The kidnappers take the bound victims away in a pickup truck.

Investigation of the TV company and the cover-up of terrorists

Elderly teacher Priscilla Rea witnesses the abduction and reports it to the police. CBA News immediately broadcasts the news live, beating the police and the FBI to the punch. Government agencies, led by Special Agent Otis Havelock, join the investigation, but the News Department’s leadership distrusts the official agencies. News Chief Leslie Chippingham creates an independent investigative team, led by Harry Partridge and Rita Abrams.

Partridge recruits a young London researcher, Teddy Cooper, along with Norman Jaeger, Iris Everly, and Carl Owens. Cooper hypothesizes that the terrorist base is located within a forty-kilometer radius of Larchmont, and the premises are rented through newspaper ads. The network hires sixty freelance assistants to review regional press archives for the past three months.

At the same time, a conflict is unfolding within the television company with its new president, Margot Lloyd-Mason, a protégé of the industrial giant Global Industries, which acquired CBA. Margot is demanding cost cuts and subordination of news policy to the corporation’s commercial interests.

Meanwhile, the kidnappers cover their tracks. In White Plains, they leave a booby-trapped pickup truck, which explodes, killing several people and destroying the parking lot. The hostages themselves are placed in wooden coffins purchased from the dishonest funeral home owner Alberto Godoy. Miguel eliminates the middleman, Peruvian diplomat José Antonio Salaverri, and his mistress, bank employee Helga Efferen, disguising the murder as a domestic drama motivated by jealousy. The militants fly the hostages to Peru on a private jet via Teterboro Airport and a stopover in Florida.

Violence in the jungle and a TV network’s ultimatum

The captives are taken to the remote fishing village of Nueva Esperanza in the Peruvian rainforest near the Huallaga River. They are locked in a filthy barn in separate bamboo cages. Jessica takes charge of her son and father-in-law, recalling the survival rules and hand-to-hand combat techniques learned in the training courses of retired British Brigadier Cedric Wade. She convinces the boy not to succumb to Stockholm syndrome and not to consider the guards his friends.

Miguel orders Jessica to read a video of Sendero Luminoso’s demands to the American people. When she refuses, the bandits tie Nicolas to a chair and burn his chest four times with a lit cigarette. Unable to bear her son’s torture, Jessica agrees to be recorded, but discreetly uses the signals her husband once described: licking her lips as a sign of coercion and touching her left earlobe, indicating lax security.

The terrorists demand that CBA take its evening newscasts off the air for a whole week and broadcast the group’s propaganda materials. The network’s management decides to stall for time by declaring the tapes they received corrupted. However, Globenic Chairman Theodore Elliott thwarts the plan: in a private conversation, he rudely declares that the corporation will not cave in to "psychopathic communists," and a reporter for the Baltimore Star publishes his words.

Upon learning of the refusal, the terrorist leaders resort to a brutal act of demonstrative cruelty. They chop off two fingers on Nicholas’s right hand with a hunting knife, putting an end to his future as a pianist, and send them by parcel to Crawford Sloan in New York. Miguel then takes the elderly Angus Sloan to the edge of the jungle and shoots him with a machine gun, after which the old man’s severed head is dumped near the US embassy in Lima.

Search and rescue operation

In New York, Carl Owens and Don Kettering’s team is on the trail of terrorists. Analysts discover an abandoned bunker in Hackensack containing buried medical equipment and radios. Using banknotes and phone numbers, they connect the operation to Dr. Baudelio (Gossage).

Partridge and his group arrive in Lima. Having found the apartment of Baudelio, who had been killed by then, Harry learns from his partner, Dolores, the exact name of the militant camp — Nueva Esperanza. Meanwhile, television company president Margot Lloyd-Mason, under pressure from Peruvian authorities, with whom Globanic is negotiating a resort deal, orders Partridge’s immediate dismissal. Chippingham is forced to sign the order, but Harry, who has already left for the mission, is unaware of this. A grief-stricken Crawford Sloane arrives in Peru.

Partridge, Minh Van Canh, sound engineer Ken O’Hara, and local stringer Fernandez Pabur charter a twin-engine plane from pilot Osvaldo Zileri and land on an abandoned forest highway. Making their way through the jungle to the village, they conduct covert surveillance.

That night, the group storms the barn. Partridge silently eliminates Vicente, the guard. Jessica instantly disarms Socorro, the paramedic, who rushes in at the noise, and subdues her with a lethal hold. After freeing Jessica and Nicholas, the rescuers commandeer a motorboat and escape down the Huallaga River. On the way to the airstrip in Zion, Fernandez breaks his leg and remains on the trail with his weapon, sacrificing himself to delay pursuit.

Denouement

In the morning, a plane carrying Crawford Sloan and Rita Abrams lands on a dirt airstrip in Zion. Sendero Luminoso militants emerge from the forest and open fire. O’Hara, Jessica, Nicholas, and Minh, who continues filming, manage to board.

Partridge covers his comrades’ retreat with automatic fire. Rushing toward the plane as it takes off, Harry is shot in the knee. Realizing he won’t be able to reach it, and that delay will kill all the passengers, the wounded journalist signals the pilot to take off immediately. The next second, a volley of automatic fire from the terrorists ends Partridge’s life.

The plane safely takes off, carrying Sloan’s rescued family. Min Van Kan captures priceless footage of his comrade’s heroism. Crawford and Jessica tearfully embrace their son, and Rita prepares an emergency broadcast, understanding that in the world of news, professional duty does not stop even in the face of the greatest personal tragedy.