Night of the Apocalypse

Easterman's (The Judas Testament) eighth novel, set in Ireland, uses the Troubles, recent American history and Mideastern terrorism to tell a crackling good yarn about a hostage rescue that everyone wants--and, it seems, has--a piece of. To help the Middle East peace effort, the Republic of Ireland is sponsoring a secret conference to be attended by U.S. and European Community delegates as well as leading Muslim clergy. Despite the efforts of Declan Carberry, brother in-law of the prime minister and head of Ireland's Special Branch in Dublin, the conference is attacked and the delegates kidnapped. Carberry has recently seen his daughter die in an attack meant for him; now, not only does he have to put aside his grief to track down the group that attacked the conference, but he also has to fight internal politics and the shadowy forces who are killing his contacts, his allies and anyone who tries to help him. The imaginative, convoluted plot--par for Easterman--works in the CIA, England's MI5, rogue elements of the IRA, a group of Western hostages in Iran--and a villain who thinks he's Jesus, about to usher in the Last Days. The result is a compulsive, complex and largely plausible read that creates a labyrinth of secrets within secrets, a political thriller whose overall mood is almost mournful despite its brutal realism. (May)