Monday, December 13, 2021

"The Wilkes Insurrection", by Robbie Bach




Robbie Back fictionalizes a scary scenario that conveys a horrifying message: America is more vulnerable than ever. Domestic terrorism is a real threat.

A snippet:

It opens when a terrorist bomb blows out a door on Flight 209 forcing an emergency crash landing at Offutt Air Force Base. Major Tamika Smith is in charge of the Search and Rescue efforts assisted by the base commander Jerry Jessup. The crash is the first of several terrorist acts that followed. Smith and Jessup lives were tragically altered on 9/11 and once again they are confronted with more terrorism.

My thoughts:

The pace is good and the chapter are not too long. The story exposes a divided America in the grips of terrorists’ attacks how it was done then and how it is still done today.

The story is told by different characters: the terrorist, the victims and the heroes. Major Smith is the principal player with all her demons haunting her. This badass ex-military who served in Afghanistan became an instant media sensation after the crash. The main villain Ford Wilkes has no particular qualities and is so easy for us to dislike. (Well he is the bad guy after all). Wilkes does the planning and hires Obaid bin Latif, a Jihadist, to execute the bombing and along the way Latif manages to evade capture time and time again....Do we have attacks in “The Wilkes Insurrection” so many to last a life time...The author does a masterful job maintaining suspense.

This is dialogue driven and easy to follow, definitely a storyline that flows effortlessly from page to page. It was very captivating till the final chapter when Tamika’s gave a long political speech then I lost focus and inevitably skipped to the end. Integrating politics was a turn off at this point.

I received this book from Greenleaf Book Group via Netgalley for my thoughts: this is the way I see it

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