Prayers For the Assassin

In a previous post I talked about my weekend and winning a gun auction. My other big accomplishment of the weekend was reading Robert Ferrigno’s Prayers for the Assassin. If you haven’t heard of it, here’s a synopsis. In 2015, Washington, D.C. and New York City were destroyed by terrorist nuclear bombs and Mecca was hit by another one. Investigators tracked the terrorists to Mossad.

The psychological shock and ensuing economic problems led to most of America becoming an Islamic Republic. Nevada split off to become a banking and “sin” center for the nation. The southeastern states formed an independent nation of Bible belters. The Mormons carved out an enclave in Utah and part of Idaho. Catholicism is reluctantly tolerated, but its adherents are in a dhimmi status except in Southern California where they are a minority but get more respect. Civil war had raged, but a reluctant peace has ensued.

There are tensions between Muslims as some divide into fundamentalists while others identify themselves as “moderns.” Of course, fundamentalists try to bring the moderns to the “true faith.” Women have a diminished role and society’s technological prowess and infrastructure are deteriorating.

In 2040, a historian and niece of the head of the Islamic state’s intelligence services uncovers evidence that the bombs may not have been Mossad’s doing. The book follows her and her lover while they try to find proof and try to dodge an assassin sent to find them.

That’s enough about the plot. If you want to read it, you’ll probably enjoy it.

Now, a gunnie’s point of view. There’s one mention of the Second Amendment. The mullahs and imams realized that they couldn’t allow an armed populace and made owning handguns a capital offence. Many people grumbled, but they turned their guns in anyway. The book mentions that a lot of people fled the Islamic Republic for the Bible Belt and Nevada, so I imagine (hope) that many gunnies made that trek. There are few mentions of how people in the Bible Belt live although Vegas is, well, Vegas.

I couldn’t put Prayers for the Assassin down and read it in about two days. I highly recommend it for a variety of reasons not the least of which is its role as a cautionary tale.