Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Starred review from June 16, 2014
Journalist Shafer hits all the right buttons in his debut as he mixes crime fiction, espionage, and SF in a darkly comic novel about paranoia and big business. A battle for control over all the information in the world has begun. The Committee, an international organization comprising industry and media leaders, has plans to privatize the news, the publishing industry, and all other social media. Dear Diary, an online movement, has set itself up as a formidable enemy of the Committee, using politics, spy craft, and technology to thwart its initiatives. Caught up in this war are Leila Majnoun, a disaffected nonprofit worker; Leo Crane, an unorthodox kindergarten teacher who lives off a modest trust fund; and Mark Deveraux, a drug addict who inadvertently becomes a bogus self-help guru and appears to work for the Committee. At times convoluted but never slack, the plot thrives on a realistic approach while seamlessly switching between such locales as Myanmar, London, and Oregon. The Committee’s takeover of the Internet, its ability to change words as they are being typed, and its targeting of enemies’ family members evokes a chilling, Orwellian society. Agent: Gráinne Fox, Fletcher & Co.

July 1, 2014
A droll, all-too-plausible contemporary thriller pulls a mismatched trio of stressed-out 30-somethings into underground guerilla warfare against a sinister conspiracy to own the information superhighway.On one side of the world, you have Leila Majnoun, an increasingly jaded operative for a global nonprofit agency struggling to do good deeds despite the brutal, stonewalling autocrats who run Myanmar (Burma). On another side is Mark Deveraux, a self-loathing self-improvement guru living a glamorous and debt-ridden lifestyle in the promised land of Brooklyn. Somewhere in the middle (Portland, Oregon, to be precise) is Mark's old school chum Leo Crane, a misanthropic poor-little-rich-kid grown into a trouble-prone, substance-abusing and seedily paranoid adult. The destinies of these three lost souls are somehow yoked together by an international cabal of one-percenters who want to create something called "New Alexandria," where all the information available (or even unavailable) online will be in their money-grubbing control, thereby making the recent real-life National Security Agency abuses of power seem like benign neglect. Shafer's arch prose, comedic timing and deft feel for shadowy motives in high places are reminiscent of the late Richard Condon (The Manchurian Candidate), only with sweeter, deeper characterizations. At times, you wish he'd move things along a wee bit faster and make his menace more tangibly scary than it is here. But it's also possible that Shafer is remaking the international thriller into something more humane and thus more credible than what fans of the genre are accustomed to.An edgy, darkly comedic debut novel whose characters and premise are as up-to-the-minute as an online news feed but as classic as the counterculture rebellions once evoked by Edward Abbey and Ken Kesey.

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August 1, 2014

While working in Burma, Leila stumbles upon a secret that leads a quasigovernmental agency to target her job, her family, and her freedom. She seeks the help of an underground network to help sort out the tangled mess but gets drawn deeper into a stranger world than she ever imagined. Leo, suffering the deepest manic-depressive bout of his life, has allowed his paranoia to run wild. Concerned for his well-being, Leo's sisters stage an intervention, but he quickly discovers that in his case, the paranoia might be well founded. Mark is baffled to find himself a famous self-help guru after his hastily written manifesto becomes an international best seller. Now the personal life coach to one of the most powerful men in the world, Mark soon learns that the seedy underbelly of conspiracy lies nearer than he thought. As their paths converge, Leila, Leo, and Mark join the Dear Diary network to combat "The Committee," and fight a secret coup seeking to privatize all information, worldwide. VERDICT Fast paced, fascinating, suspenseful, and paranoid, this is a darkly funny debut. Aptly named, the novel leads each of the characters, as well as the reader, even as they race ahead to the final climax, to wonder "wtf?" [See "Summer Best Debuts," First Novels, LJ 7/14, p. 32.--Ed.]--Jennifer Beach, Cumberland Cty. P.L., VA

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