The Prisoner of Guantanamo

May 1, 2006
Veteran foreign correspondent Fesperman taps another timely issue in his fourth topical thriller, zeroing in on the secretive U.S.-operated prison camp for possible terrorists at Guantánamo Bay. The action follows the downfall of translator Revere Falk, an FBI interrogator whose Arabic language skills have put him in high demand and, unfortunately, directly in the line of fire between competing political forces. Falk has been focusing on a Yemeni prisoner with murky links to al-Qaeda, but his questioning sessions get interrupted when the body of an American soldier washes ashore in nearby Cuban territory. Falk is assigned to the investigation, but it quickly becomes apparent that base commanders as well as military higher-ups in Washington, D.C., simply want a quick whitewash job. Falk, however, has already asked too many nosy questions and finds himself cast as a possible scapegoat for a variety of other misdeeds at Gitmo. Despite an occasionally confusing plot and a finale with little punch, Fesperman (The Warlord's Son
) does a superb job of explaining the inner workings at Guantánamo, as well as the context for the public outcry about the base.

Starred review from May 15, 2006
Fesperman, a "Baltimore Sun" reporter whose stints as a foreign war correspondent in Bosnia and Afghanistan added verisimilitude to his earlier spy novels (e.g., "The Warlord's Son"), here focuses on another news-making locale: Guantá namo, Cuba. Revere Falk escaped a wretched childhood and a future as a lobsterman by joining the U.S. Marines and learning Arabic. Now an FBI interrogator back at the infamous prison camp where he first trained, Falk is charged with eliciting information from a young Yemeni man who may have links to al Qaeda. When the mutilated body of an American officer is discovered on a Cuban beach, Falk is tapped to investigate. Suddenly, everyone wants to know about the case -the army, the CIA, the FBI, even Cuban intelligence -and Falk soon realizes the stakes are much higher than he ever imagined. Fesperman deftly builds suspense, painting a dark picture of the operations at Camp Delta and its shadier cousins, Echo and X-Ray, while including plenty of sympathetic character development. A topnotch topical thriller, this is enthusiastically recommended for all popular fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 3/1/06.]" -Christine Perkins, Burlington P.L., WA"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2006
In this alleged thriller, the fourth novel by " Baltimore Sun" journalist Fesperman, the excitement is strictly cerebral. Arabic-speaking FBI special agent Revere Falk is working as an interrogator at the highly secretive government prison located in the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, aka "Gitmo." His latest assignment is a young Yemeni prisoner who is suspected of having valuable information about al-Qaeda activities. In the midst of his interrogation efforts, he is pulled away to assist in the investigation of the death of an American soldier whose body has washed ashore onto Cuban territory. As he begins his investigation, Revere finds himself stymied from all sides, and a secret from his past returns to threaten him. Although the insider's view of the Gitmo prison base is engaging, the stock characters (including the usual backbiting government bureaucrats and arrogant military officers) along with a confusing, lackluster plot do not contribute too much of an exciting read. But expect demands based on publicity.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)

Starred review from August 7, 2006
Talk about "ripped from today's headlines"—this exciting and moving audio version of a veteran Baltimore Sun
foreign correspondent's incredibly timely thriller still has hot ink and sound bytes emanating from it. Although Fesperman set his book at Guantánamo in 2003 after spending some time there, and presumably finished it months before the current outrage about the former military base now serving as a holding unit for suspected terrorists, it reads and sounds—thanks to a cool, ironic and subtly impassioned performance by Colacci—like an Internet news feed. A very young Yemeni prisoner disappears, other prisoners kill themselves and brutal examiners justify their extreme behavior by scoffing at the Geneva Conventions. Colacci brings a large cast to life, starting with FBI interrogator and Arabic speaker Revere Falk, and manages to make Falk's so-called friends and security colleagues as equivocal as they come without breaking a sweat. Even the Cubans—who play a surprising role in the story—come across as a varied group. The only problem with playing this in a car is listeners might think they've turned on NPR by mistake. Simultaneous release with the Knopf hardcover (Reviews, May 1).