Strike the Dragon

Terrorist messages hidden in plain sight on the Web--how current; how chilling! This page-turner has believable characters, with motives well matched to their actions. Location details and understanding of Arab-Israeli, Islamic-Western conflicts enhance reader understanding--while he or she enjoys a really fascinating story. Terrific first novel by bestselling non-fiction author.

In a Palestinian refugee camp in Balata, West bank, the handler tells the widow mother of young Yousef that "It's time". She knows how he will feel because less than six months ago her husband was murdered a martyr's death. Now she will deliver in person twenty kilos of explosives and ten kilos of ball bearing to the Eshel Hashomron Hotel in nearby Ariel. At the hotel attending the wedding of a beloved cousin are Moshe and Esther Zachar when he notices the waitress acting strange; he realizes she has a terrorist bomb, but is too late with his warning. The brazen handler emboldened by his success plans bigger terrorist attacks on the enemy by attacking the Dragon from behind where it is vulnerable. Meanwhile DC desk bound FBI special agent Jillian Foster whose brother died in the Twin Towers collapse, Chicago college professor Greg Hanson seeking internet photos of the Dome of the Rock, and Moshe seeking vengeance soon find their worlds colliding trying to prevent a major biblical proportion assault. STRIKE THE DRAGON is a superb counterterrorism thriller that makes the case that another attack is imminent and that the violent history in the Middle East is personal on a family level as much as it is on a religious plane and cannot be ignored. The story line is fast-paced from the opening scene when the Palestinian widow takes revenge on Israelis attending a wedding, which leads to Moshe seeking revenge in a spiraling feud that symbolizes no ending in sight. Readers will be hooked with this powerful look at terrorists striking at what they perceive is the evil dragon by the only way they feel they can succeed while the west operatives try to prevent another 9/11. As long as fanatics like Ibrahim and the Teacher still plot, the innocent remain endangered. Harriet Klausner

A tough book to put down. Compeling plot, riveting characters, and it's cast in locales familiar to many--- making it all the more disturbing, awaiting the outcome of the terrorists.

This is a book that is hard to put down. The action is fast paced, the characters are genuine, and the plot is all too believable in this day of terrorism by fundamentalists. I am a big fan of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan and now I hope there are more books in the future with these characters. I have been recommending this book to everyone!

Strike the Dragon is an excellently written CIA/FBI thriller. The detail and character development is thorough without distracting the reader from the all too beleivable plot in this post 9/11 world. The novel keeps the reader wondering what is going to happen next and which side is going to win. The plot resolution comes and goes quickly while still leaving the reader satisfied and fulfilled. While the story is complete it leaves the reader yearning for a sequal. I was incapable of putting this book down, and would recommend it to readers who enjoy CIA/FBI stories similar to the Jack Ryan series by Tom Clancy.