Trying to describe the writing style of Hector MacDonald to a new reader, an enthusiast will quickly run up against a brick wall. Does MacDonald write thrillers? Well, yes, although there is far more style and invention here than is often found in the genre. Furthermore, it's hard to say quite what genre he writes in, his work being something original and distinctive. The Mind Game was the book with which MacDonald first made his mark, and it was a bizarre combination of thriller elements and psychological description. With The Hummingbird Saint, the author moves into even more challenging territory. Benjamin Hoppner lives in a Central American idyll, working out his philosophical and philanthropic ideas against a background of rigorous moral prescription. Mark Weston is struggling to make sense of his own disordered life, when he hears that Hoppner has made an offer: he will write a blank cheque for any cause a visitor may choose, provided Hoppner is persuaded of their virtue. Entering Hoppner's self-made society, Mark discovers that the subterfuge of the outside world has found its way into this Arcadia as well. And as war begins to threaten the community, Mark realises he'll have to make some hard choices when it comes to the eccentric philanthropist Hoppner and his generous offer. As this synopsis indicates, MacDonald refuses to utilise ideas that have been worn thin by other writers, and the basic situation here is fascinating and unusual (although, like the earlier The Mind Game, the basic situation may owe a little to John Fowles' The Magus). Mark is an intelligently drawn hero, and his moral struggle is involving at all times. What makes the novel particularly distinctive, though, is the Central American setting: sultry, threatening and the perfect backdrop for the moral equivocation that takes place.
