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Prayers for the Assassin: A Novel |  |
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Prayers for the Assassin: A Novel | |
SEATTLE, 2040. The Space Needle lies crumpled. Veiled women hurry through the streets. Alcohol is outlawed, replaced by Jihad Cola, and mosques dot the skyline. New York and Washington, D.C., are nuclear wastelands. At the edges of the empire, Islamic and Christian forces fight for control, and rebels plot to regain free will.
Courageous rebel Sarah Dougan is a beautiful historian who uncovers information that will destabilize the nation. When she disappears, the security chief of the Islamic Republic of America calls upon Rakkim Epps, her secret lover and a former elite warrior, to find her. But Rakkim is being tracked by Darwin, a brilliant psychopath. To survive, he must become Darwin's assassin and embark upon a frenetic and bloody chase to find Sarah and helpher expose a shocking truth to the world.
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From Publishers Weekly
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 © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Bookmarks Magazine
Prayers marks a departure for Ferrigno, whose previous books focused on life in contemporary Southern California. In Ferrigno''s neo-Orwellian world, Mount Rushmore has disappeared, LAX has become Bin Laden International, and midday prayers interrupt the Super Bowl. Critics expressed different ideas about the plot, using words such as "preposterous," "credible," and even "ordinary" to describe it. There''s no doubt, however, that Ferrigno raises important questions about religious freedom while handling the subject of Islamic faith with great insight and evenhandedness. If the plot sometimes overwhelms character development, he still allows his creations to air their own opinions without moralizing. In sum: a fast-paced thriller with timely appeal.
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From AudioFile
This audio performance needs a prayer. The author''s superficial plot and character development and stilted conversations combine with a flat reading to leave the listener not caring that the U.S.A. has become the Islamic States of America. At least "gas is cheap" in this disjointed tale of religious fundamentalism versus "modern" American Muslims of 2040. It''s tough to accept the author''s futuristic tale when it stars characters with distracting throw-back names like The Old One, Red Beard, Spider, and Darwin. Unfortunately, Armand Schultz plows through the book''s few thought-provoking lines--"The pious are always suspicious of devotion in others" --without dramatic flair or pause. A multi-tasking listener is likely to miss the author''s few gems. D.J.M. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
From Booklist
In a huge departure from his edgy thrillers set in the glittering wasteland of contemporary L.A. (Flinch, 2001; The Wake-Up, 2004), Ferrigno sets his ninth novel in the year 2040. The U.S. has been rent by civil strife and a nuclear attack that leveled New York and Washington, D.C. The nation is now divided into the Islamic States of America, whose capital is in Seattle, and the Bible Belt, located in the South. Young and fearless researcher Sarah Dougan, a moderate Muslim who frequently chafes at the restrictions placed on women, discovers that the nuke attacks long blamed on Israel were in fact carried out by a fanatical Muslim billionaire who intends to take over the nation by launching an unprecedented attack on the Christian South. Intending to verify her explosive findings, Sarah must go into hiding, where she is joined by her lover, former elite Muslim warrior Rakkim Epps. The two zigzag their way across an unrecognizable U.S., dogged by a psychopathic rogue assassin named Darwin. Ferrigno deserves props for his imaginative portrayal of a futuristic America, which is often highlighted through startling details, as when the second half of the Super Bowl must wait on midday prayers. But his new novel lacks his usual edge and his signature dialogue. Still, with its inventive setting and violent, action-packed, even controversial storyline, this novel should have no trouble finding an audience. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
"Genuinely frightening."
-- The New York Times
"[A] believable alternate history.... A chilling tale."
-- USA Today
