Abuse of Power

Aimed directly at fans of his conservative talk radio show and many nonfiction books, Savage’s debut novel follows Jack Hatfield, a journalist forced from his popular radio show by a smear campaign set in motion by a powerful liberal media baron. Freelancing, Hatfield decides to investigate a car bombing in San Francisco; it appears the terrorist’s ethnicity is being covered up. His quest takes him to Tel Aviv, London, Paris, and back to California, where a terrorist cell called the Hand of Allah is plotting a West Coast 9/11. All of the elements necessary for a thriller are present—including a beautiful Yemeni secret agent and assorted venal U.S. power brokers—but Peter Larkin largely narrates with a flat, almost uninterested delivery. Larkin does handle the book’s many international accents well, and his efforts bring to life sections of dramatic dialogue and moments of heightened tension. But most of the book is read with an objectivity much too cool for the genre. When narrating a thriller, one can be a little too conservative. A St. Martin’s Press hardcover. (Sept.)