My wife found this book on the discount rack at Barnes and Noble. A book with a 2009 copyright already in the discount bin made me think it's the print version of a direct to DVD release. He wrote the book that the movie The Day After Tomorrow was based on so I think he has some end of the world thing going.
The story sort of centers around Jimmy Deutsch who is one of those unseen contractors that follows up leads on radioactive materials that might be made into a bomb. A group of children smuggled in from Mexico were left on the streetside in a small town in Texas with signs of radiation sickness. Our hero goes down there and tries to trace the material to its destination. He manages to follow the stuff through Texas to Colorado to a tiny airfield in Nevada and then needs to get to a military base. While in the air in a little prop plane over southern Nevada, a nuclear bomb is set off over Las Vegas. He was too late.
Inshalla is a tres secret, shadowy organization of radical Muslims headed by a man who is said to have the spirit of the prophet Mohammed within him. Apparently this spirit moves from person to person throughout time. For years, the faithful have been planning to cut off the head of the great Satan, plunging the world into chaos and anarchy. Islam will then come in and save the world with a new world order based on fundamental Islam. They have infiltrated the highest levels of US security so that Deutsch is thwarted at every turn by our own intelligence network.
After Las Vegas meets its end, the clues suggest that Washington is next, but circumstances delay the DC strike and the next city to get nuked is Rome in an attempt to silence the Catholic Church. DC is then next, but the bad guys have to get through Deutsch first.
This book runs through Texas, Colorado, Nevada, Northern Mexico, Washington, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia, Italy, London...quite the tour. I can't say I really enjoyed this book. Strieber seems to use some of the same trite plotting techniques that Dan Brown uses to keep the story moving at a breakneck pace. While the world's political and economic systems are on the verge of collapse, our hero saves the day on the streets of Alexandria, VA. (yawn). The plot just seems too grandiose and elaborate to ever happen.
I looked at his website (www.UnknownCountry.com) and there seemed to be stuff about aliens. Hmmm. this guy may be out there a bit. Won't be bookmarking this guy any time soon.
East Coast Don
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