Small Treasons

July 31, 2017
The latest novel from Powell (The Sheltering) is an excellent, suspenseful ride. Early in Georgia psychologist John Maynard’s marriage to Tess, he takes a job at a CIA black site overseas and comes back a shell of a man. When Tess finds out she’s pregnant, John seems to snap out of the debilitating depression that followed him home. Three kids later, Tess spends her days running and watching videos of ISIS killings while John teaches at the local college and carries on an affair with a childhood friend. When the Justice Department asks John to report on coworker Prof. Edward Hadawi, under threat of an investigation into John’s black site activities, he agrees. It turns out Hadawi is grooming a teen to commit an act of violence on U.S. soil, and John sees an opportunity to find the redemption he desperately seeks. Powell digs deeply into some heavy themes, exploring pervasive violence and the startling path to radicalization that disaffected teens can find themselves on. In this well-constructed and believable story, there’s no easy way out for any of the characters. Readers will be eager to find out how these lyrical and tense stories entwine, and they eventually do, with surprising but inevitable results.