When he arrives undercover at the institute he is less than pleased to see his teenage daughter Paula, who is supposed to be at summer camp. Fearing she will blow his cover and put herself in danger, Bert warns Paula not to disclose their relationship. Paula, who has become friendly with Anne’s grandson Alec, who is on his own undercover mission for his mother, and is earning part of her tuition as a housemaid in the main house, thinks she has an inside track on information and is very eager to help her reluctant dad with the investigation.

Bert barely has a chance to get the lay of the land when a Gaia researcher, Peter "Glad" Hood is found floating in the lake the morning after he had an odd, uncharacteristic outburst at a conference. At this point, Anne brings the police in and agrees that Bert should begin investigating openly. The who of the faxes is very obvious and the why is just paranoia, based on an increasingly unpopular view of the center, both in the local community and the scientific community.

Once the police have been brought in and the fax mystery solved, it would seem unnecessary for Bert to continue his investigation, especially in light of the fact that he wasn’t thrilled to be at Gaia in the first place. Bert, however, continues his investigation as he fights off the onset of a mid-life crisis (he is turning fifty) and tries to keep Paula from getting in too far over her head.

Count Your Enemies comes up short on a couple of fronts. Bert is not an especially likable character: he agrees to things he doesn’t want to do, he doesn’t make sure his runaway daughter calls her mother to let her know where she is and that she is safe, and when his daughter steals a piece of evidence from Hood’s room, he doesn’t insist it be turned over to the police immediately.

The rest of the characters are flat and not worth caring about, even Anne comes off as a self-centered woman used to getting her own way, rather than a crusader for the environment.

Awkward phrases and dialogue and an uneven plotline make the story hard to follow in places. An interesting premise and a popular, environmentally conscious setting redeem the book a bit, but overall, Count Your Enemies is a slow mystery with unappealing characters.

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry