From Publishers Weekly
Timeliness adds considerable juice to Rosenberg's frenzied political thriller, set a couple of years in the future. In the wake of September 11, popular American president James MacPherson has spearheaded an international effort to destroy terrorist training camps in the Middle East and North Africa. Osama bin Laden has been killed, but Saddam Hussein continues to plot against the West. The novel opens with a coordinated international terrorist attack, in which Paris and London and several sites in the United States are bombed. Quick-thinking agents deflect an assassination attempt on the president, but MacPherson is gravely wounded. The reader follows the crisis through the eyes of Jon Bennett, a Wall Street strategist putting together a stock deal in Israel when the terrorists strike. Bennett once worked closely with MacPherson on Wall Street. After a tortuous interrogation at the Jerusalem airport on his way back to the U.S., Bennett passes out, expecting to be killed. When he awakes, he finds that he has passed a crucial test and is now a member of President MacPherson's inner circle of advisers. So far, Rosenberg (Not Quite Scaramouche, etc.) keeps a lot of narrative balls in the air with lean writing and breakneck pacing, but at this midway point the novel loses focus and urgency. Rosenberg's failure to give the characters dimension is exposed when the story slows down and moves away from dramatic scenes of action. Intelligence reports indicate that Saddam may be planning a nuclear attack, and the advisers engage in a lengthy heated discussion about a first strike. Though the characters in this debate come off like talking heads, the energy and scope of the dispute breathes new life into the last half of the novel and hints at greater things from the author. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Amid the geopolitical shift to the Middle East since the end of the Cold War, Rosenberg has created a chilling fictional future for America and the world with assassination attempts against the President of the United States, the Prime Minister of Canada, the Queen of England, and the Royal House of Saudi Arabia by agents of Saddam Hussein. The attacks are unleashed as a joint Israeli-Palestinian oil deal is signed, triggering a series of covert actions by the U.S., Iraq, and Israel that involve nuclear weapons and continuous action. Dick Hill performs this thriller with practiced ease, speeding up when the tension should rise and relaxing through the backstory. The performance is marred by inaccurate pronunciations of Hebrew and poor Arab accents. But doomsday predictions and a spectacular ending bring Rosenberg's speculations to a dramatic conclusion. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
This new novel from a Washington, D.C., communications expert scores big on timeliness. It's the very-near future, and the U.S. president has won a midterm election, succeeding George W. Bush. Saddam Hussein has sent assassins to gun down the newly elected president. Meanwhile, Iraqi terrorists attack the leaders of U.S.-allied countries. America sees one hope for the Western world: an Israeli-Arab alliance with the single goal of stopping Hussein. Only two people can make the alliance happen: Jon Bennett, a Wall Street strategist, and his partner, the lovely Erin McCoy. Can our plucky heroes orchestrate the giant business deal necessary to forge the alliance and save the free world? In today's get-Hussein political climate, the novel is sure to find an audience, but some readers may not find the book as exciting as expected. While Rosenberg works a couple of genuinely surprising plot twists into his story, and his grasp of international politics and terrorism seems solid, his prose style is, at best, adequate. Although fans of Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy will no doubt enjoy it, readers who like their narratives elegant and their characters more than paper-thin may be somewhat disappointed. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Jon Bennett is one of the shrewdest strategists on Wall Street and a close friend of the president of the United States. But nothing has prepared him for the terror that lies ahead." "Saddam Hussein dispatches his top assassins to the United States. Iraqi hit men spread carnage throughout London, Paris, and Riyadh. And the Butcher of Baghdad is just getting started." "Only a rock-solid Arab-Israeli coalition against Iraq can keep the U.S. - and other Western nations - from certain devastation. And only Bennett and his beautiful partner, Erin McCoy, can make that happen. Their secret project, a billion-dollar oil deal off the coast of Gaza, could be the basis for an historic peace treaty and enormous wealth for every Israeli and Palestinian." "But just before the treaty can be signed, Israeli commandos foil an Iraqi Scud missile launch, recovering a nuclear warhead and evidence that Iraq's next attacks will level Washington, New York, and Tel Aviv." "Now the Israeli prime minister gives the American president an ultimatum: Melt down Baghdad within one hour - or Israel will do it herself." From Jerusalem, Bennett and McCoy must summon all their stealth and savvy to save themselves - and the world - from absolute destruction.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Timeliness adds considerable juice to Rosenberg's frenzied political thriller, set a couple of years in the future. In the wake of September 11, popular American president James MacPherson has spearheaded an international effort to destroy terrorist training camps in the Middle East and North Africa. Osama bin Laden has been killed, but Saddam Hussein continues to plot against the West. The novel opens with a coordinated international terrorist attack, in which Paris and London and several sites in the United States are bombed. Quick-thinking agents deflect an assassination attempt on the president, but MacPherson is gravely wounded. The reader follows the crisis through the eyes of Jon Bennett, a Wall Street strategist putting together a stock deal in Israel when the terrorists strike. Bennett once worked closely with MacPherson on Wall Street. After a tortuous interrogation at the Jerusalem airport on his way back to the U.S., Bennett passes out, expecting to be killed. When he awakes, he finds that he has passed a crucial test and is now a member of President MacPherson's inner circle of advisers. So far, Rosenberg (Not Quite Scaramouche, etc.) keeps a lot of narrative balls in the air with lean writing and breakneck pacing, but at this midway point the novel loses focus and urgency. Rosenberg's failure to give the characters dimension is exposed when the story slows down and moves away from dramatic scenes of action. Intelligence reports indicate that Saddam may be planning a nuclear attack, and the advisers engage in a lengthy heated discussion about a first strike. Though the characters in this debate come off like talking heads, the energy and scope of the dispute breathes new life into the last half of the novel and hints at greater things from the author.

AudioFile