From Publishers Weekly Betrayal among friends and enemies is the tie that binds in Stroud's latest standout novel of terrorism and international intrigue. When Sen. Drew Langan is given a classified tip that al-Qaeda is planning a bombing in Iligan City, the Philippines, where the United Nations is conducting a peacekeeping mission, he dismisses the communication as having little to do with him. Back at home, a little late-night Web surfing and an attempt on his life convinces Drew that maybe he should be paying more attention. At the same time, his estranged son, Cole, is embarking on a covert CIA mission just north of Iligan City. Cole is under no illusions as to the nature of the conflict he's stepping into: "What was actually happening here was obvious to anyone with a functioning cortex: Iligan City was the yawning iron gate of yet another United Nations feel-good rat-fuck fiasco, a doomed-from-the-get-go cub-scout jamboree that was slowly but inexorably sinking into the blood-drenched malarial swamps of Southeast Asia." Stroud (
