I had heard of Joel Rosenberg before, saw him on one of those evening news shows like the O'Reilly Factor or Glenn Beck, but I hadn't ever read any of his books before. So when I was at the library the other day and saw that he had a new book out, Dead Heat, revolving around a hotly contested presidential election, I decided to check it out.

I guess I do things backwards, because this is the last book in his 5-book series that begins with The Last Jihad. That book was already checked out though, so I figured I'd read this book and then get myself on the waiting list for the first book.

As I sat down to read this book, I was hooked within the first three chapters, where the government had already taken out a big shot in the world of terrorism, a volunteer at a refugee camp in Jordan was hoping that his wife would survive a mysterious illness, and a credible terrorist threat appears less than an hour before the president is scheduled to make a speech at the Republican National Convention. Even though I hadn't read the first four books, the author does a good job making sure that this book is understandable even for people new to the series.

This was such a good book that I finished reading it two days after I had checked it out of the library, and I had convinced my husband that he wanted to search all the libraries in the area to find copies of this series that had not been checked out.

Joel C. Rosenberg's book is a story that could potentially come true, and that is what makes it so scary... especially considering that we will have a Republican National Convention this fall. What if the scenario presented in this book came true? He already wrote about planes crashing into buildings... 9 months before September 11th. As the author states in the first line of his Author's Note, "I pray to God the novel you hold in your hands never comes true."

The book contains a good mixture of realism, suspense, and imagery that kept this book in my hands, reluctant to take a break for sleeping (even though I needed to), until it was finished.

Realism Factor

Joel C. Rosenberg has obviously done his research. Sometimes you'll read a book about a subject that you know a little bit about, and there will be obvious mistakes that make you roll your eyes because the characters wouldn't talk like that, or something they wrote about couldn't happen. This isn't that sort of book.

I was an active-duty military officer for more than 5 years. On September 11th, 2001, I was the head of the Force Protection (Anti-terrorism) division at my base. I remember very well being at work when terrorists hit the World Trade Center. He spends a lot of time writing about what the military is doing, and it all seemed realistic to me. My jaw dropped when he mentioned the SS-N-22 Sunburn missile, which I remember hearing about during a briefing at Surface Warfare Officers' School... that was classified Secret. Evidently, the existence of the missile is not Secret any more, as there is an article about it on Wikipedia. But reading about this deadly missile convinced me that he knew his stuff.

Suspense

While the first three chapters left me in surprise over the destruction of a wanted terrorist, the uncovering of a terrorist plot, and another female character struggling for life with an unexplained illness, that was not the end of the suspense in this book.

There were many times while reading this book that left me in shock, and just when I thought the suspense was going to end and the author was going to start wrapping things up, another surprise occurs. This book is hard to put down because there's always an unresolved situation going on, and I just wanted to read one more chapter to see if there would be a resolution.

Descriptive Imagery

Rosenberg uses descriptive imagery that amazed me. My favorite line of all was on page 62... I had to read it to my husband, it was so good. Unfortunately, quoting it here will give away part of the plot. The author goes beyond using boring, everyday descriptions... describing a missile as "a death sentence" or "she had enough time to realize that her best efforts to protect .... had failed, that it was over, and then, sure enough, it was." The great writing left me wanting more.

Religion and the rest

Rosenberg is obviously a Christian. Publishers Weekly says that this book is "Better written and more complex than Left Behind, which it will inevitably be compared. The Rapture is mentioned several times in this book, like Left Behind, but unlike that book, some of the Christian characters are looking forward to the Rapture, and the events of this book do not occur during The Great Tribulation either. The events of this book could happen now, without God coming in and intervening, taking all of God's people away in the blink of an eye.

Also like Left Behind, there is a gospel message. A couple of the characters repent and convert to Christianity. Some of the characters are devout Christians, and Rosenberg spends some time talking about their faith. I suppose that this could become slightly annoying to some people, especially to the non-Christian, but it wasn't a central part of the plot.

Overall, I thought this was a great book, and I'm looking forward to my husband finishing The Last Jihad so I can see what happens first.

Recommended: Yes