The Sleeper: A Novel by Christopher Dickey

Behind the veil, November 20, 2004****


Drawing on the knowledge and expertise gleaned from his years as Newsweek's Middle East editor, Christopher Dickey has written a fastpaced page-turner that takes us behind the headlines of the "War on Terror". Following the horror of September 11th, Kurt Kurtovic, who is living peacefully in the midwest town of Westfield with his wife and daughter, receives a visit from government agents who question his past. This motivates him to set forth to infiltrate Al Quaeda and attempt to forestall further attacks that he senses are imminent.

On a journey that takes him to Britain, Spain, Africa and imprisonment in Guatanamo Bay, Kurtovic uncovers and kills a major Al Quaeda leader, discovers that a series of further attacks are underway using ships with dirty bombs, and is left dangling by unknown American handlers. Ultimately he is freed to return to Westfield where he is reunited with his wife and daughter who have been under Agency protection. But he has a secret, a biological weapon which he has retained from his pre-September 11th exploits. This he destroys. Shadowy figures kidnap his daughter and demand he produce the secret weapon. Together he and his wife manage to outwit and outfight them. Ultimately the trail leads back to the Sleeper, an underground figure in America with friends in high places, who is manipulating many of the players in this tale of evil.