THE SWORD OF GOD

American-Irani tensions boil over–and threaten world peace–in this fast-paced international thriller.

Following a devastating bombing raid by American warplanes on nuclear production facilities in Iran, federal agent Tom Griffin is relieved of his position at the Defense Intelligence Agency after he ruffles feathers with reports that one of the Irani targets was a decoy and that the Islamic republic may still have weapons-making capabilities. Soon foreign terrorists retaliate in the American heartland in a series of shocking coordinated attacks. Griffin suspects the government in Tehran is behind the violence and sets out to divine their international intentions and nuclear ambitions, enlisting an old friend to pose as a weapons smuggler. Before long, the spy has negotiated the sale of initiator devices for nuclear bombs to the Irani government. But soon, the spy’s safety is compromised and Tom criss-crosses the globe in order to save his friend and, eventually, the world, as he gets wind of a plot hatched by a rogue admiral in the Irani military to detonate a nuclear bomb–“the sword of God” of the title–in the port of Haifa. With sharp prose, expert pacing, believable characters and political resonance, The Sword of God is an exciting and absorbing read. Krause is skilled wordsmith, equally confident describing the components of nuclear device or conjuring the solitude of a Middle Eastern desert landscape as he is inventing witty dialogue or developing convincing back stories for his many fully realized actors. However, the narrative sags in parts as characters are introduced and then abandoned. Krause’s hero doesn’t appear until the second chapter, after readers have flown over Iran in a bombing mission with air force majors they’ll never meet again. The world in which Krause set his narrative is recognizably our own–animated by concerns over Iran’s nuclear program and resonant with post-9/11 anxiety–but occasional futuristic touches (such as a military program that allows pilots to control planes with chips in their brains) and anachronistic technology (an ethernet cable makes an appearance) muddle the temporality. Still, The Sword of God reads like the work of an accomplished spy novelist.

A compelling page-turner.