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The Last Jihad (Political Thrillers Series #1) by Joel C. Rosenberg

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The Last Jihad (Political Thrillers Series #1) Joel C. Rosenberg
Language: English
Page: 352
Format: pdf
ISBN: 0765307156, 9780765307156
Publisher: Forge / Tom Doherty Associates

From Publishers Weekly

Timeliness adds considerable juice to Rosenberg's frenzied political thriller, set a couple of years in the future. In the wake of September 11, popular American president James MacPherson has spearheaded an international effort to destroy terrorist training camps in the Middle East and North Africa. Osama bin Laden has been killed, but Saddam Hussein continues to plot against the West. The novel opens with a coordinated international terrorist attack, in which Paris and London and several sites in the United States are bombed. Quick-thinking agents deflect an assassination attempt on the president, but MacPherson is gravely wounded. The reader follows the crisis through the eyes of Jon Bennett, a Wall Street strategist putting together a stock deal in Israel when the terrorists strike. Bennett once worked closely with MacPherson on Wall Street. After a tortuous interrogation at the Jerusalem airport on his way back to the U.S., Bennett passes out, expecting to be killed. When he awakes, he finds that he has passed a crucial test and is now a member of President MacPherson's inner circle of advisers. So far, Rosenberg (Not Quite Scaramouche, etc.) keeps a lot of narrative balls in the air with lean writing and breakneck pacing, but at this midway point the novel loses focus and urgency. Rosenberg's failure to give the characters dimension is exposed when the story slows down and moves away from dramatic scenes of action. Intelligence reports indicate that Saddam may be planning a nuclear attack, and the advisers engage in a lengthy heated discussion about a first strike. Though the characters in this debate come off like talking heads, the energy and scope of the dispute breathes new life into the last half of the novel and hints at greater things from the author.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From

This new novel from a Washington, D.C., communications expert scores big on timeliness. It's the very-near future, and the U.S. president has won a midterm election, succeeding George W. Bush. Saddam Hussein has sent assassins to gun down the newly elected president. Meanwhile, Iraqi terrorists attack the leaders of U.S.-allied countries. America sees one hope for the Western world: an Israeli-Arab alliance with the single goal of stopping Hussein. Only two people can make the alliance happen: Jon Bennett, a Wall Street strategist, and his partner, the lovely Erin McCoy. Can our plucky heroes orchestrate the giant business deal necessary to forge the alliance and save the free world? In today's get-Hussein political climate, the novel is sure to find an audience, but some readers may not find the book as exciting as expected. While Rosenberg works a couple of genuinely surprising plot twists into his story, and his grasp of international politics and terrorism seems solid, his prose style is, at best, adequate. Although fans of Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy will no doubt enjoy it, readers who like their narratives elegant and their characters more than paper-thin may be somewhat disappointed. David Pitt
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