False Flag

March 6, 2017
Altman (Disposable Asset) doesn’t offer anything new in this paint-by-numbers political thriller. The Mossad head (aka the ramsad), who’s worried that the American administration has become less supportive of Israel, believes that a “tragedy on U.S. soil was worth a million equivalent tragedies in Israel.” This leads him to conclude that his country’s security depends on its successful execution of a false flag operation—the release of a biological weapon in a high-value location—that will be blamed on Iran. Conveniently for his plans, there’s an easily identifiable delivery mechanism: Michael Fletcher, an American Jew who lost most of his left leg in Iraq and now works as an official photographer for the House of Representatives. The ramsad’s evil plan is detected by other members of Israeli intelligence, who work feverishly to foil it, aided by Dalia Artzi, an Israeli visiting professor of military history at Princeton. Readers should be prepared for some awkward prose (“Panic tried to take Jana in its teeth, and she forbade it”). Agent: Richard Curtis, Richard Curtis Agency.

May 1, 2017
The line between duty and belief tears apart several people in Altman's new thriller. Jana is an Israeli operative who has a mission that will cost American lives, but the blame will fall on Iran. To her, the ends justify the means. Dalia was born in Israel but now teaches at Princeton and believes that violence never solves anything. She will be forced into a world she doesn't want any part of if she wants to save lives, including her son's. This is a compelling thriller awash in the ambiguity of international politics, and it pairs nicely with Alex Berenson's similar Twelve Days (2015).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)