The Warlord's Son

The Warlord's Son

“A tantalizing, timely thriller” ( The Washington Post Book World ) from the highly acclaimed author of Winter Work that offers a daring look at life behind the barbed wire of Guantánamo and a riveting portrayal of what goes on in the most secret levels of our government. When the body of an American soldier is discovered in Cuban waters near the U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo, Revere Falk, a former FBI agent, is reassigned from his job interrogating an accused al-Qaeda operative to investigate the soldier’s mysterious death. Falk soon finds himself in a deadly game of intrigue that stretches from the charged waters of Guantánamo Bay to the polished halls of Washington. Every move Falk makes could be costly, and to make matters worse, a dark figure from his past reappears, brandishing a secret he thought he had safely buried. "Mesmerizing. . . . Visceral. . . . Keeps the reader's attention until the stunning climax." — The Denver Post "A terrific novel of intrigue, duplicity and death in the shadow of the Khyber Pass. . . . Fesperman is that rare journalist who is also a gifted novelist." — The Washington Post “A thrilling odyssey into Afghanistan during the waning days of Taliban rule . . . a kind of post-modern Heart of Darkness .” — Seattle Post-Intelligencer “Compulsively readable. . . . Fesperman [is a] writer to watch.” — The Seattle Times "A novel ripped from the headlines. . . . Better than any news dispatch and . . . far more entertaining. . . . Fesperman amazes [with his] searing insights into human nature." — The Baltimore Sun “A first-rate geopolitical yarn. . . . Fesperman combines his strong eye for detail with bleak film-noir cynicism, managing to make plot twists that could have felt contrived seem depressingly believable.” — Entertainment Weekly “A convincing, accurate thriller. . . . This book is worth reading if only for the passage where the hero, Skelly, glimpses Osama bin Laden at a public hanging; the scene both convinces and frightens.” — The Economist "Thoroughly gripping, intelligent and wholly believable. . . . There will be other novels written about the last days of the Taliban . . . but few will match the verisimilitude, drama and compelling characters found in The Warlord's Son . . . . The conclusion . . . has the impact of a stun gun." — Flint Journal “Fesperman’s experience as a war correspondent, together with his powers of description and characterization, produce an utterly compelling thriller and quite simply the best I’ve read all year.” — Sunday Telegraph "Enlightening and entertaining. . . . A riveting and sometimes frightening read. . . . Fesperman sheds light on the tribal culture in such a way that a murky idea momentarily crystallizes into a vivid picture." — The Charlotte Observer "[Fesperman] exhibits a keen eye for the landscape's details...he excels at drawing characters." — Pittsburgh Tribune-Review "[This] veteran reporter. . . . depicts politics, geography and the tradecraft of reporters, smugglers, warriors and spies with rare insight." — San Jose Mercury News " The Warlord's Son is a story of humanity, of how primal instincts come to the forefront in dangerous situations. But it's also about friendship and loyalty and redemption, either achieved or disappointed. . . . One of the must-read novels of the year." — January Magazine His last novel, "The Small Boat of Great Sorrows, was hailed as "a relentlessly crackling mystery and adventure tale" ("The Baltimore Sun) and "a new standard for war-based thrillers" ("Los Angeles Times). In this electrifying new thriller, Dan Fesperman takes us to present-day Afghanistan-the global capital of death long before it became a battleground for America-where the fates of an American journalist and a Pakistani translator become dangerously intertwined with the fortunes of warlords, spies, and dubious corporate interests. A burned-out war correspondent hoping for a last hurrah in Afghanistan, Skelly arrives on the Afghan border just as American bombs begin falling on the ruling Taliban. Seeking the scoop of a lifetime as witness to the capture of "the biggest fish of them all," he links up with an exiled warlord's quixotic expedition. Guiding Skelly's way is Najeeb, a tribal Pakistani with his own objective-U.S. visas for his girlfriend and himself, promised by Pakistani intelligence if he acts as an informant. A harrowing crossing into Afghanistan is only the beginning of trouble for the two men. Their journey quickly escalates into a race for their lives as they are pulled into a vortex of intrigue, betrayal, and violence. Finally, only their loyalty to each other holds out the possibility of survival for either of them. Fast-paced, timely, and galvanizing from first to last. "From the Hardcover edition. Dan Fesperman is a former foreign correspondent who worked in Baltimore Sun’s Berlin bureau during the years of civil war in the former Yugoslavia, as well as