BOMBMAKER

In this thriller, an interrogator gets tapped to extract information from a suicide bomber about a major terrorist attack planned for the United States.

In September 1989, Georges Fadi Subdallah is on a Vespa, having coached “those crafty Egyptians on how to turn this little bike into a big bomb.” At the security gate of an Arlington, Virginia, government building, he takes off his helmet, wired for transmissions from a terrorist leader named Marcel Karim, to deal with the guard. When the guard mentions that the building is empty due to asbestos work, Fadi reflects that “he had come too far, and he was so close to his end,” deciding to keep this information from Marcel. Thinking of “his two sweet girls,” Fadi proceeds to his planned spot and detonates himself. Ten months later, Emma Ripley is at her boring Department of Defense surveillance desk job in Arlington. She gets a hush-hush assignment from her previous overseas interrogation boss: Get U.S.-born Fadi, who barely survived self-immolation and is secretly imprisoned nearby, to talk about an imminent U.S. hit planned by Marcel. The narrative crosscuts between this urgent mission and Fadi’s backstory about joining Marcel’s cell, culminating in an incident at Boston’s Hancock building. Davies has crafted an accomplished thriller that showcases intriguing characters amid suspenseful, stop-the-plot action. Emma, who prioritized overseas work over her husband and child, muses how, as an unattached, divorced woman, she would be an ideal suicide bomber candidate. She also assesses dating prospects as if they were surveillance subjects. Fadi’s “two sweet girls” are his wife and daughter (also Marcel’s sister and niece), whose deaths in Egypt led to his suicidal action. The author skillfully depicts Fadi’s chilling evolution. Davies traces Fadi’s uneasiness and anger in America, including his being a victim of racially motivated violence in college, offering compelling, documentary-type insights into this character’s road to terrorism.

A riveting drama about radicalization and terrorist surveillance on American soil.