Prayers for the Assassin: A Novel of the Future

Overview

Not just high concept, but highly entertaining, Prayers for the Assassin is set thirty-five years from now, after a civil war in which most of the former USA has become a moderate Islamic republic and the former Bible Belt has broken away to become a secular Christian nation. This political shift was precipitated by simultaneous, suitcase-nuke detonations in New York City, Washington D.C., and Mecca, a sneak attack blamed on Israel, and known as the Zionist Betrayal. In this new society there are still Superbowls and Academy Awards, but calls to Muslim prayer echo in the streets and fear of terrorist violence is everywhere. Within this tense world, the beautiful and intrepid young historian Sarah Dougan uncovers shocking evidence that the Zionist Betrayal was not linked to Israel at all, but was a plot carried out by a radical Muslim now poised to overtake the entire nation. Sarah's research threatens to expose him, and soon she and her lover, Rakkim Epps, a Muslim convert and elite warrior, find themselves hunted by Darwin, a brilliant psychopathic assassin.

Editorial Reviews

Taking post-9/11 conspiracy theories that blamed the attacks on Zionist agents as the seed for this unusual thriller, Ferrigno (The Wake-Up) posits a nuclear terrorist onslaught in 2015 on New York City, Washington, D.C., and Mecca that has all the earmarks of a Mossad operation. The blue states are moved by these horrors to convert to Islam, while the red states break away from the Islamic Republic, forming a Christian republic in the South. By 2040, three major parties struggle for control in the Islamic Republic: the moderate State Security forces, under Redbeard; the Black Robes, a fundamentalist religious police force; and the top-secret Assassins, under the Old One. When Sarah Dougan, Redbeard's niece and a respected historian, reinvestigates the 2015 attack for a new book, The Zionist Betrayal , the Old One sics his deadliest assassin on her. Running from Seattle to Vegas, Sarah has a protector in her lover, an ex-fedayeen soldier named Rakkim Epps, whose agnostic POV anchors the novel. Fans of instapundit politics will love this thriller, which has the cinematic motion and atrocity F/X of a good airport read. However, Ferrigno's gimmick-the transformation of America into a cartoon version of Islam-lends the proceedings a damaging air of implausibility. (Feb.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of Robert Ferrigno

obert Ferrigno was born in South Florida, a tropical backwater rife with mosquitoes and flying cockroaches. After earning college degrees in Philosophy, Film-Making, and Creative Writing, he returned to his first love, poker. He spent the next five years gambling full-time and living in a high-crime area populated by starving artists, alcoholics, thieves and drug dealers, becoming friends with many people who would later populate his novels. He used some of his winnings to start a punk rock magazine called The Rocket, where he interviewed the Clash, Elvis Costello, Iggy Pop, etc. The success of The Rocket got him a job as a feature writer for a daily newspaper in Southern California, where he took the adventure-and-new-money beat. Over the next seven years he flew jets with the Blue Angels, drove Ferraris, and went for desert survival training with gun nuts. He ultimately gave up his day job to become a novelist, and his first book, The Horse Latitudes, was called "the fiction debut of the season" by Time magazine. His most recent novel, The Wake-Up, was described by Kirkus Reviews as "Sharp, fast, and slick. Ferrigno can read like Raymond Chandler on speed, with pages turning and adrenaline pretty high throughout." Prayers for the Assassin is his ninth novel. He lives in Washington State with his family.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Scribner

Filesize

905.29 KB

Number of Pages

416

eBook ISBN

9780743289276