Point of Entry: A Novel - Softcover

Schechter, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061205648 ISBN 13: 9780061205644

Publisher: Harper Paperbacks, 2007

Synopsis

With calculated cunning, renegade Syrian intelligence operatives have discovered how to smuggle uranium-235—the key material required to manufacture an atomic weapon—into the United States undetected, exploiting a network of the most experienced and sophisticated smugglers the world has ever known.

As the CIA repeatedly misinterprets numerous intelligence warnings, only Marta Pradilla—Colombia's beautiful, hard-minded new president—can assist the United States' conservative, isolationist President Stockman in finding the terrorists and their deadly cargo before it's too late. Set in Washington, D.C., Bogotá, Rome, and Tbilisi, and featuring a cast of major international figures, Point of Entry brings readers into an intensely treacherous world that reads less like fiction every day.

About this title

About the Author:

Peter Schechter is the author of Point of Entry, and an international political and communications consultant. A founder of one of Washington's premier strategic communications consulting firms, he has spent twenty years advising presidents, writing advertising for political parties, ghost-writing columns for CEOs, and counseling international organizations out of crises. He also owns a winery, farms goats, and is a partner in a number of successful restaurants. Schechter has lived in Europe and Latin America and is fully fluent in six languages. He lives in Washington, D.C.

From Publishers Weekly:

First-time novelist Schechter draws on his background as an international political and communications consultant for this tentative but promising international thriller. Set in the "not-so-distant future," the story revolves around a Syrian scheme to smuggle enriched uranium into the U.S. through Colombia (via Russia, Chechnya and Georgia) using the drug traffickers of a prominent cartel. Schecter deftly executes this spellbinding plot and the suspenseful rising tension of the uranium's movement across the world. (The journey through the remote regions of the Caucasus is especially intriguing.) Although important to the unfolding action, the subplots—especially the love story involving American President John Stockman, a widowed practical Midwesterner, and Colombian President Marta Pradilla, the country's first female leader and a former Miss Universe and Rhodes scholar—often strain credibility. Schechter's use of dialogue for awkward exposition also makes for some improbable conversations: when the U.S. national security adviser, for example, briefs President Stockman on a lunch with the heads of state of the Group of Eight nations, he reminds Stockman that they "govern the world's richest countries." Despite some missteps, the strength of Schechter's storytelling makes for an entertaining debut. (Jan.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0061205648
• ISBN 13: 9780061205644
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352