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