Synopses & Reviews
From the noted counterterrorism expert and #1 bestselling author comes an astonishing fiction debut a novel of terrorism, warring nations, and political treachery...that could happen tomorrow.
For three decades, Richard A. Clarke worked in the White House, State Department, and Pentagon. As adviser to four presidents, he traveled throughout the Middle East, visiting palaces, military bases, and intelligence centers, meeting rulers, soldiers, and spies. Some of what he found appeared in Against All Enemies. Much more of it appears here.
In an extraordinary geopolitical thriller filled with the kind of cutting-edge authenticity only someone on the inside could bring, Clarke takes readers just five years into the future, when forces both in the Middle East and the United States are at work to launch another war. But this time, it could be bigger. This time, it could be nuclear, and spread to Asia and beyond.
A coup has finally toppled the sheiks of Saudi Arabia, and put a determined but shaky Islamic government in its place. Everywhere, the scent of oil has begun to attract the scorpions, and among them are men in Washington and another capital ready to strike a devil's bargain to fundamentally realign the map of the Middle East. The plans are not the same, however though some of the planners think they are. Hidden agendas, fierce ambition, conflicting loyalties, faulty intelligence, catastrophic miscalculation soon the dominos will start to fall, and not even the efforts of a few dedicated men and women on the outside may be able to stop anunstoppable folly.
Blending exceptional realism with intricate plotting, razor-sharp suspense, and a remarkable cast of characters, The Scorpion's Gate will be one of the most talked-about novels of the year.
Review
"Why has Mr. Clarke turned to fiction as a venue for his arguments? No doubt it's a way to say...things about the Bush administration that he can't quite come out and say in an essay....It's also a way for Mr. Clarke to dramatize his arguments and try to reach a broader audience." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Review
"If Clarke does nothing else but cause some readers to question our ludicrous reliance on unstable oil supplies....he will have done a service." Washington Post
Review
"Short on blood and guts, yes, but long on thoughtful, prescient analysis of realignments of power." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
Faulty intelligence, hidden agendas, and a new but still shaky Islamic government in Saudi Arabia set the stage for a dangerous nuclear war between Asia and the United States. Reprint.
Synopsis
The insider whose warnings about terrorism on U.S. soil went unheeded-and whose book Against All Enemies rocketed to the top of bestseller lists-now presents his first novel: an all-too-believable story of politics, oil, espionage, and the earthshaking consequences that may lie at the end of the road ahead.
About the Author
Richard A. Clarke has served the past three presidents as special assistant to the president for global affairs, national coordinator for security and counterterrorism, and special adviser to the president for cybersecurity