Prayers for the Assassin: A Novel

Written by Robert Ferrigno

Narrated by Armand Schultz

In this “provocative and compelling” (The Seattle Times) thriller set in the future, Islamic and Christian forces battle for the fate of the United States as a young historian discovers the shocking truth about the devastating nuclear attacks that plunged the world into chaos.

2040: New York and Washington, DC are nuclear wastelands. Chicago is the site of a civil war battle. Countless other cities are simply abandoned.

After simultaneous nuke attacks had destroyed several major cities, Israel had been blamed, resulting in a devastating second civil war in the United States. An uneasy truce leaves the nation divided between an Islamic republic with its capital in Seattle and the Christian Bible Belt in the old South. Everything is controlled by the state, paranoia rules, and rebels plot to regain free will.

One of the most courageous is the young historian Sarah Dougan, who uncovers evidence that the nuclear attacks might not have been planned by Israel. If this information is true, it will destabilize the nation. But when Sarah suddenly goes missing, the security chief of the Islamic republic calls upon Rakkim Epps, her lover and a former elite warrior, to find her—no matter the risk.

But as Rakkim searches for Sarah, he is tracked by Darwin, a brilliant psychopathic killer trained in the same secretive unit as Rakkim. To survive, Rakkim must become Darwin’s assassin in a bloody, nerve-racking chase that takes them through the looking-glass world of the Islamic States of America, and culminates dramatically as Rakkim and Sarah battle to expose the truth to the entire world.

“Sharp and wildly entertaining cover to cover” (Chicago Sun-Times), Prayers for the Assassin is an unputdownable political thriller that will keep you guessing until the very last page.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Feb 21, 2006
• ISBN: 9780743555715

Robert Ferrigno

Robert Ferrigno was born in South Florida, a tropical backwater rife with mosquitoes and flying cockroaches. After earning college degrees in philosophy, film-making, and creative writing, he returned to his first love, poker. He spent the next five years gambling full-time and living in a high-crime area populated by starving artists, alcoholics, thieves, and drug dealers, becoming friends with many people who would later populate his novels. Over the next several years he flew jets with the Blue Angels, drove Ferraris, and went for desert survival training with gun nuts. He ultimately gave up his day job to become a novelist, and his first book, The Horse Latitudes, was called “the fiction debut of the season” by Time. He lives in Washington with his family.

Reviews for Prayers for the Assassin

[corduroy7-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very different read. Seems a particularly thought-provoking read in an election year.

[fernemysteryreader · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very different read. Seems a particularly thought-provoking read in an election year.

[schraubd · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

They say you should find one nice thing to say about anything. I'll say Ferrigno does add some good dramatic pacing, akin to the Da Vinci Code. Like the Da Vinci Code, that is transposed against a marked lack of actual literary talent. Unlike the Da Vinci Code, the "alternative history" (or here, future) is so poorly presented as to be almost ludicrous. The easy target is the rampant Islamophobia, and that's certainly present, but it's actually Ferrigno's obvious hatred of liberalism that really trips him up.The key cities in Ferrigno's radical, militant Islamic state are selected for their connection to the American left, even though the careful (or simply awake) reader might pause to wonder what caused the good people of San Francisco to switch en masse from being amongst the most gay-friendly in the world to redecorating the Golden Gate Bridge with the skulls of stoned homoesexuals? Indeed, while Ferrigno essentially blames the left for the Islamist takeover, he doesn't really credit there being such thing as a "left", if by that we mean a cohesive ideological position that actually does support things like "women's equality" and "gay rights." Those positions just evaporate as everyone north of the Mason-Dixon line and west of Idaho decides to go all al-Qaeda, without any compelling explanation whatsoever (even if Americans all bought into the "Zionist terror plot" confession, that still doesn't explain why suddenly they no longer believe in women wearing pants). The result is pure hackwork.

[thecrow2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Welcome to the future, 30 years from now, where the USA became an Islam Republic except few southern states (the Bible Belt). Cionist terrorists' A-bombs destroyed New York, Washington and Mecca. Or the whole new world order lays on a lie?

[sloepoque · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This story opens in Seattle in the year 2040. Part of America has become The Islamic Republic of America; the rest of it has become the Bible Belt. There has been a second Civil War, and this time around the North won again, but the South refuses to knuckle under to the tyranny of the Islamic Republic. They may have to live with imposed sanctions, but, for them, it's better than living under the rule of an Islamic empire with so many rules and so many harsh punishments.This is a clever idea, and for most of the book it works. It's not all completely realistic, but there's plenty of danger, treachery, twists, and turns to make the story interesting, often riveting, reading. At some point, though, I stopped caring about the plot and how it would resolve itself. I think that's the trouble with most books of this type that base everything upon the super powers of the protagonists. Eventually it all becomes rather anticlimactic.

[dspoon_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Seattle, 2040. The Space Needle lies crumpled. Veiled women hurry through the streets. Alcohol is outlawed, replaced by Jihad Col, and mosques dot the skyline. New York and Washington, D.C., are nuclear wastelands. At the edges of the empire, Islamic and Christian forces fight for control, and rebels plot to regain free will. Courageous rebel Sarah Dougan is a beautiful historian who uncovers information that will destabilize the nation. When she disappears, the security chief of the Islamic Republic of America calls upon Rakkim Eppps, her secret lover and a former elite warrior, to find her. But Rakkim is being tracked by Darwin, a brilliant psychopath. To survive, he must become Darwin's assassin and embark upon a frenetic and bloody chase to find Sarah and help her expose a shocking truth to the world.

[mswallack_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An interesting premise (a world in which Islam has taken over much of the former USA which remains at war with the "Bible Belt") that simply didn't work. The story was somewhat interesting, but I kept coming back to the fact that I simply didn't believe the back story that the author had created and which led to the world in which the action occurred.

[terrybfla · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An interesting "what if" book along the lines of Len Deighton's SS-GB or "Fatherland" except instead of Nazi's we are all now Muslims. The authors research seemed extensive in creating a society run concurrently by the elected government, State Security and the religious state. The plot was relatvely predictable, but the characters were well written and the story pulled you along.