cover image The Asylum Prophecies

The Asylum Prophecies

Daniel Keyes, . . Leisure, $7.99 (371pp) ISBN 978-0-8439-6271-0

Those familiar with Keyes only from his extraordinary Flowers for Algernon will be dramatically disappointed by this mediocre post-9/11 political thriller. Sometime before the second U.S. incursion into Iraq, an unlikely coalition of Marxist militants—17N, a Greek group, and MEK, a majority-female Iranian gang—are conspiring to hit major targets, employing anthrax in one assault. The plans for the attack happen to be locked in the mind of Raven Slade, the mentally unstable daughter of a covert CIA agent who hypnotizes her to make sure she can reveal them to no one. As Slade is tortured by 17N members, Frank Dugan, a novice FBI intelligence analyst, is tapped to travel to Europe and thwart the doomsday plot. Hackneyed writing (“As Fatima stood, the crescent necklace slipped out from between bold breasts”) and improbable plot developments will push readers' credulity beyond the breaking point. (Oct.)