I rarely read suspense-driven books, but I enjoyed this one despite its flaws, because it depicted an interesting scenario.
(Spoiler alert)
A terrorist organization has small but powerful nuclear bombs that can be delivered by one-seat airplanes hidden near major cities all over the world. They bomb a big city in the US and threaten to keep bombing cities until their demands are met. Their basic demand is that everyone in the world, starting with the US President, publicly convert to Islam, declare allegiance to Allah, and adhere to Wahhabi -style Sharia law. (Apologies if my terminology offends someone - I know very little about Islam or what is considered respectful terminology.) The main characters are key players on both sides and are mostly not well-developed. I didn't care, in this case. What intrigued me was simply contemplating this "what if" scenario. ( )

I've always been a fan of Whitley strieber, and I enjoyed this book. I didn't find his descriptions boring, although maybe his characters could have used some more fine tuning. But all in all, I found it entertaining, and what else do we read books for? It was also very timely, something to think about. ( )

Usually I like anything Whitley Strieber writes, but this was too close for comfort. Truly scary if (when) the nukes go off. ( )

There were parts of this book that were pretty good, and others that were just plain confusing and redundant. Jim Deutsch, an undercover CIA operative who works to keep nuclear weapons out of the wrong hands, is first described as someone who doesn't scream and fight (i.e, torture) to get what he wants. Then he seems to do exactly that. (Not that I'm complaining there--I like Jack Bauer/Mitch Rapp characters.)

Without giving away too much, just know that a nuclear bomb does go off. The writer, Whitley Streiber, then spends multiple pages describing the damage. What starts out as truly horrifying descriptions becomes boring very quickly. OK, we get it. People and places are obliterated. Get on with the story.

Then we get a few chapters that introduce us to two characters we've not seen yet, and have to infer their mission. It was done poorly and made me confused about what was going on.

I think the basis of this book could've been handled much better with writers like Vince Flynn, Nelson DeMille, or Brian Haig. But the flow of the story often didn't make sense, the way Deutsch uncovers facets of his investigation seemed to include huge leaps of assumption or shear dumb luck.

Not highly recommended. ( )

This has to be one of the best books I've read in a long time! I couldn't put it down. He just makes it so real-world, that you are scared it could happen. ( )