RED SEA
Emily Benedek
St. Martin's Press
Thriller
ISBN-10: 0312354916
ISBN-13: 9780312354916

• About the Book
• Read an Excerpt
• Author Interview -- September 21, 2007

Although Emily Benedek is known primarily as a journalist from her dispatches in such publications as Newsweek and Rolling Stone, she has also authored a number of nonfiction works, two of which concern American Indian issues and one that deals with her own spiritual journey. This time out, Benedek makes her fiction debut with RED SEA, a novel that will alter your worldview.

Although RED SEA is considered a thriller, the backstory of its publication easily could lead one to conclude otherwise. Benedek, while reporting for Newsweek, is said to have made contact with a highly-placed Israeli counterterrorism expert who, because of his continuing role in the international community, could have his story told only as a work of fiction. Indeed, there are many elements of the novel that are consistent with backchannel knowledge. Its frightening beginning --- I’ll only tell you that this is a simply wonderful book to pick up before a transatlantic flight! --- only heralds the planning of a more ambitious and catastrophic plot, directed against the United States but with worldwide ramifications.

The mastermind behind it is Mansour Obaidi, an Islamofascist whose history of actions against the United States goes back for decades. It is Julian Granot, a recently “retired” Israeli Special Forces commander --- the length of his so-called “retirement” seems to be at the discretion and pleasure of the Israeli military --- who slowly comes to realize that the high-profile first strike of the terrorists is but a prelude to what is about to occur. Granot is shocked, however, when he discovers Obaidi’s involvement, for he has a personal history with Obaidi that will not end until one of them is dead.

Matters are complicated by the interjection of Marie Peterssen, a journalist who is very quick to realize that there is more behind the initial terror attack than was originally thought. Though Peterssen is not aware of it, there is a link between her, Obaidi and Granot, one that leaves both Obaidi and Granot vulnerable to each other and to Peterssen. As Obaidi’s plot moves speedily to its execution, Granot finds himself stymied not only by his own superiors but by his nation’s greatest ally: the one he is attempting to protect.

Granot discovers an unexpected ally, however, in Morgan Ensley, a maverick FBI agent who believes more in results than in protocol and who, upon making the acquaintance of Peterssen, is doubly motivated to protect and serve. The combined efforts of Granot, Peterssen and Ensley may not be enough, though, as Obaidi’s ingenious plot to bring the United States to its knees proceeds inexorably to its conclusion.

More than a great debut, RED SEA introduces a cast of characters that, should Benedek be desirous of such, would easily sustain an ongoing franchise. It simply doesn’t get any better than this.

   --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

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