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A man waits in a phone booth. He is watched. When the phone rings with instructions, the man is pulled through a hidden door to a secret room. At the same time, someone dressed very much like him steps into the phone booth and takes his place. The man is now in the sanctuary of the Secret Society of Reasonable People, while his replacement steps out into a dangerous and uncertain world outside. The man is weary and grateful to finally escape the torment of the so called private detectives who've followed and harassed him for weeks.
We know nothing about the private detectives or why they were following him, but we do learn this happens more frequently than anyone realizes. We also learn about the Secret Society of Reasonable People and its mission to help others escape the "savagery of civilization," where the rich and powerful have control and life can be made miserable for everyone else. The replacement man in the phone booth is Leonidas, leader of the Secret Society. But when something happens to Leonidas, everything changes. The Secret Society faces distrust and betrayal among their own and their purpose and mission is threatened by the infiltration of the savage world outside.
Chris O'Grady's characters are stand ins for larger social and moral issues we face in the world today and there is certainly something to be said of the brutal nature of humans. This a short novel, with much of it spent on the philosophical musings of society and the rise and fall of civilizations. At times the plot escapes us, yet there is enough here to make for an intriguing story. The title is a reference to the Spartan King, Leonidas, who stood up to the Persian armies invading Greece in 480 BCE. While not one of O'Grady's better novels, fans will still recognize familiar themes, trademark shadowy characters, and distinctive beliefs, and it fits in neatly with his body of work to date.