The Last Jihad

Carol Stream, Ill: Tyndale House Publishers, 2006. Near Fine. Timeliness adds considerable juice to Rosenberg's frenzied political thrill er, set a couple of years in the future. In the wake of September 11, popul ar American president James MacPherson has spearheaded an international eff ort to destroy terrorist training camps in the Middle East and North Africa . Osama bin Laden has been killed, but Saddam Hussein continues to plot aga inst the West. The novel opens with a coordinated international terrorist a ttack, in which Paris and London and several sites in the United States are bombed. Quick-thinking agents deflect an assassination attempt on the pres ident, but MacPherson is gravely wounded. The reader follows the crisis thr ough the eyes of Jon Bennett, a Wall Street strategist putting together a s tock deal in Israel when the terrorists strike. Bennett once worked closely with MacPherson on Wall Street. After a tortuous interrogation at the Jeru salem 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 th e novel loses focus and urgency. Rosenberg's failure to give the characters dimension is exposed when the story slows down and moves away from dramati c scenes of action. Intelligence reports indicate that Saddam may be planni ng a nuclear attack, and the advisers engage in a lengthy heated discussion about a first strike.