ARTS&LIFE BOOK REVIEW
A Thrilling Adventure
Al Pessin
Shock Wave by Al Pessin, Pinnacle Books: New York, 2022.
A
deadly plot is being hatched by terrorists in the Middle East, planned by America’s most hunted terrorist. Luckily, word has MIKE SMITH leaked to the Americans. One of its elite countContributing Writer er-terrorist units decides to act and assigns its top undercover agent to foil the operation. He joins the terrorist group that is planning a spectacular attack, and so begins the thrilling adventure in Shock Wave, a new book by Al Pessin. Born and raised in Oak Park, Pessin owns an extremely impressive resume as an award-winning journalist and author. For 39 years, he was foreign correspondent for the Voice of America and a member of the White House Press Corps in the 1990s. Along the way, Pessin reported from Hong Kong, Islamabad, Beijing, Jerusalem and London. While covering the news in the People’s Republic of China, Pessin was expelled for “illegal news gathering” and “fomenting counter-revolutionary rebellion,” after the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989. In China, it appears that the truth hurts. This story was reported by the JN (July 28, 1989). Following tried-and-true advice about the art of writing, it can be said that Pessin indeed writes about what he knows. Shock Wave is the third book in his Task Force Epsilon series. The first two, Sand Blast and Blowback are set in Afghanistan and Syria, respectively. In Shock Wave, Faraz Abdallah, one of America’s best undercover operatives, is again asked to foil an evil plot. Like many fictional heroes, he learned his exceptional skills in the U.S. Army, but rather uniquely, he is an Afghan American soldier. Likewise,
his boss is a woman, Bridget Davenport. A West Point graduate, Davenport now heads a secretive unit that has a singular mission: fight global terrorism. Abdallah and Davenport make a formidable team, and they need to be one. They must find America’s most-wanted terrorist, Saddiq Mohammed al-Assali, who is planning a devastating attack in Jerusalem, timed for a day when Israelis are celebrating a major holiday. The setting for the story is the West Bank and Israel. The story begins with al-Assali in a boat on the Red Sea, traveling clandestinely to meet terrorists in-training. His recent plots have not gone well and he desperately a needs a huge, visible success to maintain his status … or just stay alive. But, al-Assali has an idea that, if successful, will involve the United States in a Middle Eastern war. The Americans, however, have lost track of al-Assali. They are alarmed and turn to Davenport’s covert unit. She, in turn, recruits Abdallah for the job of infiltrating the terrorist organization. Abdallah had hoped to return to regular Army life with the 101st Airborne, but the stakes are immense and his country needs him. The Americans will also need the skills and experience of Israeli intelligence. While the concept of an attack on a holiday is not new — the 1973 Yom Kippur War, for one example — Pessin’s story is a fresh take on the idea. And his years of experience reporting from some of the world’s most troubled areas contribute to the development of the story’s primary
characters. Son of immigrants and a patriot, Abdallah’s background as an AfghanAmerican allows him to deftly assume a new identity and infiltrate al-Assali’s organization. As he works to sabotage the plot, Abdallah meets a range of Islamic terrorists — extreme religious idealogues, antisemitic, anti-Israel terrorists, and family members forced to harbor the plotters — all with their own personal backgrounds and reasons for their willingness to participate in and die for a terrorist operation. If successful, it will result in a cruel mass slaughter of Israelis, tourists and others on Purim in Jerusalem. Fighting against the terrorists, along with Abdallah, Davenport and the Americans are Israeli agents. They also have their personal experiences, prejudices and ideologies. The result is a well-written page-turner of an adventure in and of itself. Moreover, although fiction, the story also provides the reader with insight into the possible rationales and experiences that motivate terrorists, and likewise, the diverse nature and motivations of those fighting against them. In this sense, it is also a thoughtful book. Does Abdallah thwart the evil plan? I cannot say. It would blow my cover. Read Shockwave for the answer. For an interview with author Al Pessin, please turn the page. JUNE 16 • 2022
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