Prayers for the Assassin: A Novel [Hardcover]

This book is predominantly marketed as speculative fiction, and in that sense, it's...not the best. The premise, or at least the catalyst in the novel, is just a little too absurd to be taken seriously by anyone not in a neoconservative thinktank. However, it's written much in the style of a thriller, and despite the that it's futuristic, really just boils down to a spy thriller within a fictional near future. And as a thriller, it's actually pretty good.

The year is 2040 and the United States is divided into four political entities: 1) the Mormon territories (henceforth unimportant to the novel or this review), 2) the Bible Belt, a Protestant holdout against Muslim hegemony whose politics remain arcane to us, 3) the Islamic States of America, a predominantly Muslim yet “free” country in the north and west whose Christian minority is mostly Catholic, and 4) the Nevada Free State, a secessionist independent where Las Vegas has become the central hub of North America. The book focuses on the ISA. Rakkim Epps is a former Fedayeen (basically military special ops) shadow warrior (basically sleeper cell agent) in love with the niece of the head of State Security (who's one of the top most powerful men in the country; picture Secretary of Defence). The niece, Sarah, goes missing and Rakkim comes out of retirement to track her down. Sarah, who wrote a controversial book about the rise of Islam in America, has stumbled across a bin Laden-esque plot by a Muslim mastermind known as “The Old One” which began decades ago and with only slight hiccoughs has succeeded in a knew Holocaust and steadily built a global caliphate as prophesied in Muslim eschatology. The Old One, desperate to keep his web of lies secret, dispatches Darwin, a former assassin of the Fedayeen, after Rakkim and Sarah.

What led to this? Well, in 2015, nukes took out New York, Washington and left Mecca as a radioactive waste. The story was that fundamentalists were attacking the good old US of A and their Saudi puppets. Then, the FBI gets a confession from Richard Aaron Goldberg, an Israeli Mossad agent who orchestrated the whole thing to make it look like fundamentalists were attacking the US and the Saudis. A coalition of Arab states and a demographically Muslim majority Europe invaded Israel, the US, now involved in all out civil war between the Protestant holdouts and the moral clarity of a rising Islam in the wake of New York and Washington, pull their foreign aid for Israel and the Jews are nearly erased from history altogether until Russia gives the last of them sanctuary. China, the world's new superpower, remains neutral.

So why is this absurd in the thriller sense? Well, does anyone believe that Congress – much less the American public – would turn against Israel when it's made to look like Muslim radicals? Even in the face of a confession? That confession would never have made it onto the six o'clock news.

But that's minor nitpicking. As I say, most spy or political thrillers thrive on absurd geopolitics, and, at least within the continuity of its own fictional universe, it works. The characters are believable, the layers of ISA society are plausible, the scope of geopolitics is all-encompassing. And the story is rather enjoyable along the way, although at times it seems like the characters are just going through the motions. There are points where it seems like Ferrigno knows where he wants the story to go, but hits a brick wall and just... goes there anyway. Perhaps I zoned out, but I don't understand why the Old One let Rakkim and Sarah go (even though they did have to orchestrate some half-assed escape). Things do fit rather neatly together in the end, although I'm glad Darwin didn't turn out to be a mindless vassal of the Old One; that is, he remains true to his character.

As always, I must give further props to any book that has a scene random gratuitous anal sex.

This is a decent book, when viewed as a thriller, though that may only be in contrast to its piteous competition. I will continue with the series, because now I'm curious to continue within this brave new world.

Because I have enjoyed virtually every book that Robert Ferrigno had written, I looked forward to this one but I was disappointed by the unfortunate future that he created. With superhuman assassins and highly improbable occurrences, the author moves away from the gritty world of wiseguys and snappy dialog that filled his earlier, much more realistic books. I, for one, hope he re-thinks this trilogy and goes back to the present.

Here's the essential problem --- the foundation of the story isn't believable. Ferrigno bases his plot on the idea that the world believes that a nuclear attack on New York City, Washington, DC and Mecca in 2015 is the work of Israeli agents. As a result, most of the USA converts to Islam, with a group of the southern states breaking away to form a Christian nation.

It doesn't ring true. A novelist, particularly someone writing speculative fiction, asks his readers to suspend disbelief, but he has to present a realistic premise. Why would anyone believe that Israel, which depends on America for its survival, would attack US cities and then throw in Mecca for good measure? And even if you believed Israelis were responsible for the attack, why would you lose your faith and convert to Islam?

Nevertheless, I ignored this ridiculous concept and kept reading. The action is set in 2040. Sarah Dougan, a respected historian, isn't convinced it was an Israeli attack, so she begins to dig into the story. When the Old One, a mysterious Muslin leader, learns of Sarah's investigation, he hires Darwin, a deadly assassin, to take care of Sarah. With the assistance of Rakkim Epps, her secret lover, Sarah races to uncover the true terrorist while Darwin murders just about everyone she contacts.

Once I pushed aside the premise, I found a gripping thriller that kept my interest. Ferrigno should be commended for a balanced portrayal of Islam; even depicting Sarah and Rakkim as moderate Muslims.

Overall, Prayers for the Assassin is a pretty good near-future thriller.