JUNE 16 • 2022 | 49

ARTS&LIFE
BOOK REVIEW

A 

deadly plot is 
being hatched 
by terrorists in 
the Middle East, planned 
by America’s most hunted 
terrorist. Luckily, word has 
leaked to the Americans. 
 One of its elite count-
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 formi-
dable team, and they need to be one. They 
must find America’s most-want-
ed 
terrorist, Saddiq Mohammed al-As-
sali, 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-Assa-
li in a boat on the Red Sea, trav-
eling clandestinely to meet ter-
rorists 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 infiltrat-
ing 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 hol-
iday 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 Afghan-
American allows him to deftly assume a 
new identity and infiltrate al-Assali’s orga-
nization. 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, tour-
ists 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 ideol-
ogies. 
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 ratio-
nales and experiences that motivate terror-
ists, 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. 

MIKE SMITH
Contributing 
Writer

A Thrilling 
Adventure

Shock Wave by Al Pessin, 
Pinnacle Books: New York, 2022.

Al Pessin

