The Contractor

Though billed as a critical examination of the interrogation camps run by the U.S. military, this dramatic thriller is more a finely tuned character study of a man in personal crisis. George Young, a private contractor, interrogates prisoners in a remote island fortress known as Omega. Young appreciates the challenge of his job, but dislikes the many uncomfortable strategies he must employ and is haunted by his role in the death of prisoner #4141. The professional anxieties only aggravate his personal troubles: a vanished libido, a wife who drinks too much, a young son whom he fears may be homosexual. Holdefer (Nice ) shows a polished touch with detail and dialogue. The rare humorous moment is dry and often tragic, and the interrogations are so vivid as to make the reader squeamish. A valuable entry in the Gitmo field, all that's missing in this well-wrought novel—or simply lost in the intricacies of Young's story—is the promised critique of state-sanctioned torture. (Nov.)