cover image The Messenger

The Messenger

Stephen Miller. Delacorte, $26 (336p) ISBN 978-0-345-52847-6

Miller’s latest (after The Woman in the Yard) is a timely bioterror thriller. Raised in an Iraqi refugee camp, Daria joins a terrorist organization that sends her off to boarding school in Florence, Italy. She lives an outwardly normal life, but eventually is summoned to Berlin, where she is infected with smallpox and put on a plane for New York, her mission to infect the city. Meanwhile, scientist Sam Watterman, whose career and finances were ruined after being pegged as a suspect in the 2001 anthrax mailings, emerges from retirement to help the FBI. He goes back to work for the money and the pleasure of sparring with an old rival who is now director of the CDC. Chapters dealing with Daria’s sleeper years defy cliché and bring her complex situation to life, but after she ditches her cover and begins to wander, Daria’s sections lose their urgency. Additionally, since Daria is part of a larger plot, Watterman doesn’t even know he’s looking for her until halfway through the book, which further saps momentum. The novel’s premise is terrifying, and Daria is a memorable character, but the execution falls short. Agent: The Bukowski Agency. (July 3)