A left-wing journalist is recruited by the U.S. government to assassinate the top nuclear scientist in Iran. So begins Banquo’s Ghosts, an espionage thriller whose aim at both Muslim terrorists and the mainstream media ensures that it will never see the big screen. Which is a shame, because it would make a very fine movie.
The book’s Banquo is the head of a shadowy (is there any other kind?) CIA branch that decides that the best way to stall Iran’s nuclear ambitions is to send into that country the most unlikely and unsuspected agent, one whose credentials are famously and impeccably anti-American. No one better for this, according to Banquo, than Peter Johnson, a journalist whose famous and impeccably anti-American views are privately shaken by the 9/11 attacks.
It’s clear that authors Rich Lowry and Keith Korman have done their homework, instilling the story’s various places and scenarios with believability. They also have the thriller thing down pat, as there are twists galore here, all of them very well executed. Some sections of the book move faster than others, but particularly after the first quarter the pace doesn’t lag.
The characters are a mixed bag. Though Banquo and his righthand man, Robert Wallets, are clearly admirable, they’re also wooden, and less interesting than anyone they interact with. Their blandness, however, is surpassed by the colorfulness of Peter Johnson, whose transformation from left-wing zealot to reluctant patriot is fascinating and who has most of the book’s best lines. I kept picturing Christopher Hitchens as Johnson, which might not be accurate considering that Hitchens’s leftism is far more tempered than Johnson’s, but the similarities in personality were enough for me to make that connection. Also noteworthy are the Iranians, chief among them Yasmine, a beautiful young scientist who may or may not be Johnson’s contact in Iran, and Yossi, a mysterious Iranian Jewish operative working for Banquo’s group.
All of them are players in an exceedingly, refreshingly politically-incorrect book. Its prose would burn the eyeballs of many an East Coast reviewer. There are no shades of gray bandied about here: The good guys are good, the bad guys evil. Or just bad, in the case of the elite left-wing talking heads. From Keith Olbermann to Chris Matthews, hardly anyone in the mainstream media is spared the book’s righteous venom – except Megyn Kelly, who gets glowing praise that comes close to a marriage proposal.
Sadly, there are very few openly conservative books on the fiction shelf. For this reason alone, readers should pick up a copy of Banquo’s Ghosts to support the cause, and for an entertaining read.
[Important: If you buy a copy of the book, don’t read the summary provided on the inside flap of the dust jacket, as whoever wrote it decided it’d be swell to give away the whole plot. Thankfully, I didn’t look at it until after I’d finished the book.]
