Interrogator Emma Ripley gave everything for the job. Still regretting her divorce and the absence of her young son, she’s poured everything into her career. But nothing could prepare her for her latest assignment: A suicide bombing has been carried out, but the bomber survived. Thus begins the unlikely acquaintance of Emma and Georges Fadi Sabdullah—husband, father, activist, Benjamin Franklin admirer, and former college football player. Barely alive, he is looked after for one reason only: the possibility that he might open up about his associates and their next plan of attack. Using her own personal life to break the ice, Emma paves the way for Fadi to tell his own story.
In alternating chapters, Daniel J. Davies tells parallel stories: a man in search of respect in his home country of the United States, and a woman in search of answers. By all appearances, Fadi is a decent man and a victim of circumstance. But Emma made that mistake once before, and its effects still haunt her to this day. Earning his trust, and affording him hers, could either save or end hundreds of lives. And with a rogue element loose somewhere nearby, time is running short.
BOMBMAKER opens with a tense introduction before easing into its parallel stories. Davies introduces the reader to a pair of surprisingly similar characters: parents who would do anything, but couldn’t do enough. From the beginning, both sides of the interrogation are presented empathetically. Davies’s handling of their individual narratives, not to mention the point at which these narratives cross over, is masterful. Never is the reader encouraged to root for or against either party—rather, they are both victims of circumstance, two sides of a nuanced argument where both are fighting the same enemy from different angles. Stories like these are difficult to handle intelligently and compassionately, but Davies does so admirably, balancing the pair’s mutual wit and earnestness throughout a tense narrative and creating a must-read for fans of psychological thrillers—or simply of psychology.
With BOMBMAKER, Daniel J. Davies presents a surprising thriller: one in which a dead man speaks volumes and both sides of an unusual suicide bombing are equally engaging.
~Kara Dennison for IndieReader