Sword of the Shaheen: An M.E. Morris Novel

Morris, retired naval aviator and author of two previous thrillers ( Alpha Bug ), offers here a variant of the theme of the Islamic Bomb. A splinter group of Muslim terrorists, The New Shaheen, is provided with two nuclear devices by the Soviet Union. They use one to destroy a U.S. aircraft carrier and smuggle the second into downtown San Antonio, holding the city hostage until their demands for Israel's neutralization are met. The pace is fast, with the final confrontation, set atop San Antonio's Tower of the Americas, dramatic and well crafted. Morris's outline of America's domestic and international response to small-scale nuclear attack is provocative. Its development is, unfortunately, sacrificed to the overlong narration of CIA agent Davey Morales's vain pursuit of the terrorists from Cuba through Belize and Mexico. The result, a schizophrenic story line, part political thriller and part espionage adventure, becomes less than it might have been by trying to be too much. (Jan.)