THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER

In its deadly arsenal al Qaeda has lacked one tool, a white man, a European, willing to destroy himself for the cause, a suicide bomber as invisible in England as he would be in the Gaza Strip. Gerald Seymour imagines the parturition, training, and seasoning of just such a man. Treasured by the deadly brotherhood, he crosses desert wastes, stalked by the Predator, a U.S. airplane unmanned but not unarmed. He could kill a city. “You start with a suitcase, any suitcase.” Simon Vance has a plum pudding of a voice, beautiful to listen to, but somehow inappropriate for Americans, or Arabs. Despite the casting flaw, this remains a first-rate thriller, meticulously imagined and forcefully performed. B.H.C. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 05/ JAN 06]