Empire of lies

Book Cover
Average Rating
Publisher
Harcourt
Publication Date
[2008]
Language
English

Description

Sustained by a deep religious faith, Jason Harrow has built a stable family and become a pillar of principle and patriotism in the Midwest. Then the phone rings, and his past is on the other end of the line. A woman with whom he once shared a life of violence and desire claims her daughter is missing—and Jason is the one man who can find her.

Returning to New York City, Jason finds himself entangled in a murderous conspiracy only he can see and only he can stop—a plot that bizarrely links his private passions to the turmoil of a world at war. Hunted by terrorists and by the police, Jason has only hours to unravel an ex-lover’s lies and face the unbearable truth: In order to prevent a savage attack on his country, he’s going to have to risk his decency, his sanity, and his life.

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ISBN
9780151012237

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Published Reviews

Booklist Review

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

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
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Publisher's Weekly Review

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

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
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Library Journal Review

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.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Kirkus Book Review

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.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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Booklist Reviews

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.

Copyright 2008 Booklist Reviews.
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Library Journal 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.

Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
Powered by Content Cafe

Publishers Weekly Reviews

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)

[Page 35]. Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
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