A Talk with the Angels: A Thriller

Politics make for strange bedfellows in Desmond Meiring's (The Brinkman) eighth novel. Colonel Tarek Daniel Gad of Cairo's anti-terrorist squad meets with a disgruntled member of the Angels of the Sword, a tight-knit group of religious fundamentalists who intend to make Egypt a fully Islamic state. Before Gad can penetrate their defenses, his informant is dead, a cycle that repeats itself as he begins to investigate the upsurge in terrorist activity. It emanates from a cell led by Abbas Sidki, a hero of Sadat's October war. On the fourth anniversary of Sadat's assassination, Sidki will be aiming a highpowered rifle at a motorcade carrying Egyptian President Mubarak and the American President. Orchestrating this coup are an Englishman, an Israeli and a Libyan, an unlikely triumvirate with political and personal reasons for engineering Mubarak's death. Meiring's smooth pace occasionally bogs down in the labyrinth of Middle Eastern politics, but a humorous delivery, full-blooded characters, and rich, crowded Egyptian street scenes go far toward fixing these flaws. January 27