The Roche Limit

A dying agent's cryptic disclosure leads U.S. Army Maj. Bob Faller to reconsider his patriotic philosophy and life's work in this reflective if ultimately uneven espionage thriller. A humane man overwhelmed by American decline, Faller finds his world view challenged in a meeting with amputee billionaire Sheldon Orelson, who warns that the Roche Limit rule of the more powerful always prevailing applies to both Earthly power games and astronomy. Faller's increasingly unsatisfactory encounters with a decaying, inequitable society engender an angst only heightened by injustice and corruption. As he seeks answers to the death of informant Mahmoud, who was part of the covert Rogue Traveler program, and uncovers the antics of elusive agent Bethany Black-Jones, death and the collapse of his marriage provide heavy-handed symbolic parallels to his transformed understanding of America. Confrontations with various forces spur Faller to fight for the "African Muslim Communist" he once detested, and to reconcile with his politically active daughter, Jennifer. In his debut novel, Vesterberg's portrait of an extremist pulls no punches and has a lingering power.