Empire of lies

Jason Harrow is a prosperous midwesterner living a picture-book life. A single phone call, though, recalls him to New York City, to a past when he did things he's ashamed of, and to reminders of his mother's madness. An ex-girlfriend's plea for help finding her wayward daughter plunges Harrow into a conspiracy in which Muslim terrorists are planning something dire that only he can stop he just prays he's not making it all up. Klavan (Damnation Street, 2006) certainly knows how to construct an exciting thriller and has done so again here. But Harrow's conservative worldview is likely to turn off liberal readers. In this near-future world of political correctness gone mad, the rise of violent Islamofascists has been abetted by an unholy trinity of higher education, Hollywood, and the media and, by inference, the declining influence of strong, Christian men. But after so much venom, neither Harrow's Christianity nor his revulsion at his own ultimate act of violence is quite convincing. The political polemics don't subvert Klavan's thriller instincts, but they are likely to limit his audience.--Graff, Keir Copyright 2008 Booklist

Edgar-winner Klavan (True Crime) delivers a wickedly satiric thriller with political overtones. Jason Harrow was cynically immoral before he found God and became a conservative Midwestern family man. Now his former lover summons him back to New York City with the news that his teenage daughter (one he never knew about) is in trouble, mixed up with terrorists who are plotting a major atrocity. To save his daughter and thousands of others, Jason must confront the buried fear that he's inherited his mother's insanity and can't control his own dark urges. As Jason's insecurity intensifies, so does the novel's nightmarish mood. Disgusted by the excesses of the liberal media, Jason discovers that he's not just paranoid, he really is a persecuted outsider. The action builds to an explosive climax at the screening of a 3-D movie at a Manhattan theater. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

A woman with whom solid family man Jason shared a violent past resurfaces, begging him to find her missing daughter. But is she telling the truth? (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A Midwestern developer is recalled to New York, where the wild oats he sowed years ago are waiting to pull him into a terrorist plot. Long before religion and middle age claimed him, Jason Harrow was into the S&M scene. Now, out of the blue, his last partner, Lauren Wilmont, calls him to say that she needs his help with something she can't talk about over the phone. It turns out that Serena, her teenaged daughter, has run away, and she wants Jason to talk her into coming home. It's no great trick to find Serena, who may be his own daughter, but her drunken babbling about how "I didn't know they were going to kill him" warns Jason that he's stumbled onto something scary. The first of a series of monumental coincidences links Serena's ramblings to college student Casey Diggs, who vanished after taking heat for his newspaper story about an inflammatory anti-Zionist rally on an unidentified campus readers will have no trouble recognizing. Realizing that he's either incredibly paranoid or that Serena knows just enough about a terrorist group to endanger herself and everyone around her, Jason labors to prevent "the End of Civilization as We Know It" as he juggles his loyalty to her, Lauren, the justice system and the values that have sustained him in a life he fears is rapidly slipping away. Klavan (Damnation Street, 2006, etc.) gets a C-minus for plausibility, an A for thrills. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Jason Harrow is a prosperous midwesterner living a picture-book life. A single phone call, though, recalls him to New York City, to a past when he did things he's ashamed of, and to reminders of his mother's madness. An ex-girlfriend's plea for help finding her wayward daughter plunges Harrow into a conspiracy in which Muslim terrorists are planning something dire that only he can stop—he just prays he's not making it all up. Klavan (Damnation Street, 2006) certainly knows how to construct an exciting thriller and has done so again here. But Harrow's conservative worldview is likely to turn off liberal readers. In this near-future world of political correctness gone mad, the rise of violent "Islamofascists" has been abetted by an unholy trinity of higher education, Hollywood, and the media—and, by inference, the declining influence of strong, Christian men. But after so much venom, neither Harrow's Christianity—nor his revulsion at his own ultimate act of violence—is quite convincing. The political polemics don't subvert Klavan's thriller instincts, but they are likely to limit his audience. Copyright 2008 Booklist Reviews.

A woman with whom solid family man Jason shared a violent past resurfaces, begging him to find her missing daughter. But is she telling the truth? Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

Edgar-winner Klavan (True Crime ) delivers a wickedly satiric thriller with political overtones. Jason Harrow was cynically immoral before he found God and became a conservative Midwestern family man. Now his former lover summons him back to New York City with the news that his teenage daughter (one he never knew about) is in trouble, mixed up with terrorists who are plotting a major atrocity. To save his daughter and thousands of others, Jason must confront the buried fear that he's inherited his mother's insanity and can't control his own dark urges. As Jason's insecurity intensifies, so does the novel's nightmarish mood. Disgusted by the excesses of the liberal media, Jason discovers that he's not just paranoid, he really is a persecuted outsider. The action builds to an explosive climax at the screening of a 3-D movie at a Manhattan theater. (July)