FROZEN END

A suave, intelligent technology analyst combines forces with a beautiful government attorney to combat international terrorism.

Sam Baradi has it all–Ivy League degrees, tenure at Cornell University (quite a feat at age 28), a moneyed, international pedigree, and to top it off, killer good looks. So he’s excited to meet his match one night at a bar–the stunning Samantha Holzman, whose interests and talents eerily match his own. They quickly discover that they both deal in high-level national security issues, and, as they learn the hard way, both their families are somehow involved. Meanwhile, halfway across the world in a hotbed of Middle Eastern terrorism, a dangerous Islamic sect is plotting an ultimate coup–they plan to undermine the American financial system, which will weaken every major market, so they can snatch up companies and assets at basement-level prices. Unfortunately, the terrorist organization plans to do this via hacking influential financiers’ computers, an area in which Sam is supremely skilled. This sets the stage for a high-tech, high-stakes global battle that pits the budding couple against a series of devious enemies. All the elements of a typical thriller are present and accounted for, but the execution is lacking. Poor prose combined with an overeager sense of character development–the old-world wealth and leading-man good looks add up to a trite and unrealistic protagonist–only distract from the action. Similarly, offhand remarks from the terrorists about the Lehman Brothers downfall, Bernie Madoff or the weakening of Wall Street are heavy-handed and too blatantly pulled from the headlines. What Nader does well is paint pictures of evil, both individual and societal. The leader of the terrorist group is a slithering, deviant-eyed tyrant, and he oozes malice. Unfortunately, the good guys aren’t half as human, and that’s the book’s primary downfall.

A too-slick protagonist mars an otherwise salvageable thriller.