Clark Hayden is a graduate student trying to help his mother navigate through the loss of his father while she continues to live in their house near Washington DC. With his mother's diminishing mental capacity becoming the norm, Clark expects a certain amount of craziness as he heads home for the holidays. What he couldn't possibly anticipate, though, is that he would find himself catapulted into the middle of the terrorist operation. As the holiday festivities reach a crescendo, a terrorist cell - which happens to be across the street - is activated. Suddenly Clark is discovering things he never knew about deadly chemicals, secret government operations, suspiciously missing neighbors, and the intentions of a gorgeous IRS auditor. Clark's quiet suburban neighborhood is about to become one of the most deadly places on the planet, and it's up to Clark to prevent the loss of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives in the nation's capital. Fast, acerbic, wise and endlessly exciting, Love Thy Neighbor marks the unforgettable debut of a startling new voice in suspense fiction.
Love Thy Neighbor
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
(This part is true.)
In late 1999 a woman from Vienna, Virginia, a suburb ten miles from the White House as the crow flies, called the CIA. The woman, a fifty-something mother of three, phoned to report what she referred to as potential terrorists living across the street from her middle-class home. She went on to explain what she had been seeing in her otherwise quiet neighborhood: Strange men of seemingly Middle-Eastern descent using their cell phones in the yard. Meetings in the middle of the night with bumper-to-bumper curbside parking, expensive cars rubbing ends with vans and common Japanese imports. A constant flow of young men, some who seemed to stay for long periods of time without introducing themselves to anyone in the neighborhood. The construction of a six-foot wooden fence to hide the backyard from the street only made the property more suspicious.
Upon hearing a layperson’s description of suspicious behavior, the CIA promptly dismissed the woman and her phone call. (Ironically, the woman lived less than a quarter of a mile from a CIA installation, though it was not CIA headquarters as was later reported.)
In the days and weeks following 9/11, the intelligence community in the U.S. began to learn the identities of the nineteen hijackers who had flown the planes into the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon. In the process of their investigation they discovered that two of the hijackers, one on each of the planes that hit the World Trade Towers, had listed a particular house in Vienna, Virginia as a place of residence.
The FBI and various other agencies swooped in on the unassuming neighborhood and began knocking on doors. When they reached the house of a certain mother of three, she stopped them dead in their tracks. She was purported to have said, “I called the CIA two years ago to report that terrorists were living across the street and no one did anything.”
The CIA claimed to have no record of a phone call.
The news networks set up cameras and began broadcasting from the residential street. ABC, NBC, FOX. The FBI followed up with further inquiries. The woman’s story was later bounced around the various post 9/11 committees and intelligence hearings on Capitol Hill. (Incidentally, after 9/11, the CIA closed its multi-story facility in the neighborhood where the terrorist reportedly lived. In 2006 the empty building was finally torn down and, as of early 2011, was being replaced with another office building).
There has been much speculation about what the government should have or could have known prior to 9/11. The answer is not simple. There have been anecdotal stories of people in Florida and elsewhere who claimed to have reported similar “terrorist” type activities by suspicious people prior to 9/11. None of these stories have been proven.
What we do know is that with the exception of the flight school instructor in Minnesota who questioned the motive of a student who was interested in flying an aircraft without learning how to land, and an unheeded warning from actor James Woods who was on a plane from Boston with several of the purported terrorists while they were doing a trial run, the woman from Vienna, Virginia was the country’s best chance to prevent 9/11. To date, there has been no verification of any other pre-9/11 warnings from the general public so far in advance of that fateful day in September.
For me, there is no doubt as to the validity of the claims of the woman in Vienna.
She lived in the house where I grew up. She is my mother.
Mark Gilleo. October, 2011. Washington DC.
* * *
Ariana turned on the nightlight and closed the door to her daughter’s room. She walked down the carpeted hall towards the light stretching out from the plastic chandelier over the dining room table. Her husband’s chair was empty and she quietly called out his name. No response. As Ariana turned the corner to the kitchen and reached for the knob on the cabinet over the counter, eight hundred pages of advertising crashed into her rib cage, sucking the wind from her lungs. As his wife doubled over, Nazim raised the thick Yellow Book with both hands and hit her on her back, driving her body to the floor.
“Don’t you ever disobey me in front of others again.”
Ariana coughed. There was no blood. This time. She tried to speak but her lips only quivered. Her thick-framed glasses rested on the floor, out of reach. Her brain fought to make sense of what happened, what had set her husband off. It could have been anything. But every curse had its blessing, and for Ariana the blessing was the fact that Nazim didn’t hit her in front of Liana. A blessing that the child didn’t see her mother being punched. The reason was simple. Nazim was afraid of his daughter. Afraid of what she could say now that she could speak.
The curse was that Ariana never knew when she had crossed the line. She never knew when the next blow was coming. She merely had to wait until they were alone to learn her fate for past indiscretions.
Ariana gasped slowly for air. She didn’t cry. The pain she felt in her side wasn’t bad enough to give her husband the satisfaction.
“When I say it is time to leave, it is time to leave. There is no room for negotiation in this marriage.”
Ariana panted as her mind flashed back to the Christmas party. She immediately realized her faux pas. “I didn’t want to be rude to Maria. She spent days making dessert. She is old. Do we not respect our elders anymore?”
Nazim pushed his wife onto the floor with his knee, a reaction Ariana fully expected. “You are my wife. This is about you and me. Our neighbor has nothing to do with it.” Nazim looked down at Ariana sprawled on the linoleum and spit on her with more mock than saliva.
“Maria is my friend.”
“Well, her son is coming home and she doesn’t need you.”
Nazim dropped the yellow book on the counter with a thud and went to the basement. Ariana gathered herself, pushing her body onto all fours and then pulling herself up by the front of the oven. She looked at the Yellow Book and her blood boiled. It was like getting hit by a cinderblock with soft edges. When it hit flush, it left very little bruising. As her husband intended. For a man of slight build, Nazim could generate power when a beating was needed.
Ariana took inventory of herself, one hand propping herself up on the counter. She had been beaten worse. Far worse. By other men before she met her husband. Her eyes moved beyond the Yellow Pages and settled on the knife set on the counter, the shiny German steel resting in its wooden block holder. She grabbed the fillet knife, caressed the blade with her eyes, and then pushed the thought from her mind.
Her husband called her from the basement and she snapped out of her momentary daze. “Coming,” she answered, putting the knife back in its designated slot in the wood. She knew what was coming next. It was always the same. A physical assault followed by a sexual one. She reached up her skirt and removed her panties. There was no sense in having another pair ripped, even if robbing Nazim of the joy would cost her a punch or two.
Christmas, the season of giving, she thought as she made her way down the stairs into the chilly basement.
(This part is true.)
In late 1999 a woman from Vienna, Virginia, a suburb ten miles from the White House as the crow flies, called the CIA. The woman, a fifty-something mother of three, phoned to report what she referred to as potential terrorists living across the street from her middle-class home. She went on to explain what she had been seeing in her otherwise quiet neighborhood: Strange men of seemingly Middle-Eastern descent using their cell phones in the yard. Meetings in the middle of the night with bumper-to-bumper curbside parking, expensive cars rubbing ends with vans and common Japanese imports. A constant flow of young men, some who seemed to stay for long periods of time without introducing themselves to anyone in the neighborhood. The construction of a six-foot wooden fence to hide the backyard from the street only made the property more suspicious.
Upon hearing a layperson’s description of suspicious behavior, the CIA promptly dismissed the woman and her phone call. (Ironically, the woman lived less than a quarter of a mile from a CIA installation, though it was not CIA headquarters as was later reported.)
In the days and weeks following 9/11, the intelligence community in the U.S. began to learn the identities of the nineteen hijackers who had flown the planes into the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon. In the process of their investigation they discovered that two of the hijackers, one on each of the planes that hit the World Trade Towers, had listed a particular house in Vienna, Virginia as a place of residence.
The FBI and various other agencies swooped in on the unassuming neighborhood and began knocking on doors. When they reached the house of a certain mother of three, she stopped them dead in their tracks. She was purported to have said, “I called the CIA two years ago to report that terrorists were living across the street and no one did anything.”
The CIA claimed to have no record of a phone call.
The news networks set up cameras and began broadcasting from the residential street. ABC, NBC, FOX. The FBI followed up with further inquiries. The woman’s story was later bounced around the various post 9/11 committees and intelligence hearings on Capitol Hill. (Incidentally, after 9/11, the CIA closed its multi-story facility in the neighborhood where the terrorist reportedly lived. In 2006 the empty building was finally torn down and, as of early 2011, was being replaced with another office building).
There has been much speculation about what the government should have or could have known prior to 9/11. The answer is not simple. There have been anecdotal stories of people in Florida and elsewhere who claimed to have reported similar “terrorist” type activities by suspicious people prior to 9/11. None of these stories have been proven.
What we do know is that with the exception of the flight school instructor in Minnesota who questioned the motive of a student who was interested in flying an aircraft without learning how to land, and an unheeded warning from actor James Woods who was on a plane from Boston with several of the purported terrorists while they were doing a trial run, the woman from Vienna, Virginia was the country’s best chance to prevent 9/11. To date, there has been no verification of any other pre-9/11 warnings from the general public so far in advance of that fateful day in September.
For me, there is no doubt as to the validity of the claims of the woman in Vienna.
She lived in the house where I grew up. She is my mother.
Mark Gilleo. October, 2011. Washington DC.
* * *
Ariana turned on the nightlight and closed the door to her daughter’s room. She walked down the carpeted hall towards the light stretching out from the plastic chandelier over the dining room table. Her husband’s chair was empty and she quietly called out his name. No response. As Ariana turned the corner to the kitchen and reached for the knob on the cabinet over the counter, eight hundred pages of advertising crashed into her rib cage, sucking the wind from her lungs. As his wife doubled over, Nazim raised the thick Yellow Book with both hands and hit her on her back, driving her body to the floor.
“Don’t you ever disobey me in front of others again.”
Ariana coughed. There was no blood. This time. She tried to speak but her lips only quivered. Her thick-framed glasses rested on the floor, out of reach. Her brain fought to make sense of what happened, what had set her husband off. It could have been anything. But every curse had its blessing, and for Ariana the blessing was the fact that Nazim didn’t hit her in front of Liana. A blessing that the child didn’t see her mother being punched. The reason was simple. Nazim was afraid of his daughter. Afraid of what she could say now that she could speak.
The curse was that Ariana never knew when she had crossed the line. She never knew when the next blow was coming. She merely had to wait until they were alone to learn her fate for past indiscretions.
Ariana gasped slowly for air. She didn’t cry. The pain she felt in her side wasn’t bad enough to give her husband the satisfaction.
“When I say it is time to leave, it is time to leave. There is no room for negotiation in this marriage.”
Ariana panted as her mind flashed back to the Christmas party. She immediately realized her faux pas. “I didn’t want to be rude to Maria. She spent days making dessert. She is old. Do we not respect our elders anymore?”
Nazim pushed his wife onto the floor with his knee, a reaction Ariana fully expected. “You are my wife. This is about you and me. Our neighbor has nothing to do with it.” Nazim looked down at Ariana sprawled on the linoleum and spit on her with more mock than saliva.
“Maria is my friend.”
“Well, her son is coming home and she doesn’t need you.”
Nazim dropped the yellow book on the counter with a thud and went to the basement. Ariana gathered herself, pushing her body onto all fours and then pulling herself up by the front of the oven. She looked at the Yellow Book and her blood boiled. It was like getting hit by a cinderblock with soft edges. When it hit flush, it left very little bruising. As her husband intended. For a man of slight build, Nazim could generate power when a beating was needed.
Ariana took inventory of herself, one hand propping herself up on the counter. She had been beaten worse. Far worse. By other men before she met her husband. Her eyes moved beyond the Yellow Pages and settled on the knife set on the counter, the shiny German steel resting in its wooden block holder. She grabbed the fillet knife, caressed the blade with her eyes, and then pushed the thought from her mind.
Her husband called her from the basement and she snapped out of her momentary daze. “Coming,” she answered, putting the knife back in its designated slot in the wood. She knew what was coming next. It was always the same. A physical assault followed by a sexual one. She reached up her skirt and removed her panties. There was no sense in having another pair ripped, even if robbing Nazim of the joy would cost her a punch or two.
Christmas, the season of giving, she thought as she made her way down the stairs into the chilly basement.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
Neighbors ... do you ever really KNOW them and all their activities that occur right under your nose?
Clark Hayden is a twenty-five year old graduate student at Virginia Tech, who moves back home to Arlington, VA to take care of his elderly mother who has a diminished mental capacity, and is still grieving the death of her husband from two years ago. Clark comes home over the Christmas holiday expecting some craziness from his mom, but he did not expect to find out that she is being audited by the IRS. There is also suspicious activity in the neighborhood: missing neighbors, another neighbor dies, chemical use, and a terrorist cell is in place getting ready to strike. With the IRS, FBI, CIA, local police, a terrorist cell, and an elderly mom ... there goes the neighborhood ... and Clark is caught in the middle of the craziness!
Love Thy Neighbor is a fast-paced spine chilling suspense thriller that will keep the reader sitting on the edge of their seat. The storyline is a well written and intriguing look into terrorism and covert governmental operations. The story is told within alternating narrative chapters from the viewpoint of the two main characters: Clark and Ariana. The author's attention to detail is superb, he provides fascinating and well thought out descriptions of the inner workings of terrorist cells and covert governmental operations. The author takes the reader on a journey as the story unfolds, one that is filled with a lot of suspenseful twists and turns that keeps the reader guessing and provides a lot of food for thought. There are a lot of characters in the story, but the author does a great job of intertwining them in a cohesive manner that makes them fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.... Read more ›
Clark Hayden is a twenty-five year old graduate student at Virginia Tech, who moves back home to Arlington, VA to take care of his elderly mother who has a diminished mental capacity, and is still grieving the death of her husband from two years ago. Clark comes home over the Christmas holiday expecting some craziness from his mom, but he did not expect to find out that she is being audited by the IRS. There is also suspicious activity in the neighborhood: missing neighbors, another neighbor dies, chemical use, and a terrorist cell is in place getting ready to strike. With the IRS, FBI, CIA, local police, a terrorist cell, and an elderly mom ... there goes the neighborhood ... and Clark is caught in the middle of the craziness!
Love Thy Neighbor is a fast-paced spine chilling suspense thriller that will keep the reader sitting on the edge of their seat. The storyline is a well written and intriguing look into terrorism and covert governmental operations. The story is told within alternating narrative chapters from the viewpoint of the two main characters: Clark and Ariana. The author's attention to detail is superb, he provides fascinating and well thought out descriptions of the inner workings of terrorist cells and covert governmental operations. The author takes the reader on a journey as the story unfolds, one that is filled with a lot of suspenseful twists and turns that keeps the reader guessing and provides a lot of food for thought. There are a lot of characters in the story, but the author does a great job of intertwining them in a cohesive manner that makes them fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.... Read more ›
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By D Miller
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I ordered this book based on the other reviews it had received. The story is intriguing, but the author could use a better editor. There are a number of speech-y passages, and some of the metaphors and descriptions are just plain cheesy. Still, this author has potential, and the story is believable.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Kristin
Format:Paperback
I was blown away (pun unintended) by this book. Love Thy Neighbor is as fine a suspense novel as any I've ever read -- and the fact that it is Gilleo's debut suspense novel is mind-boggling.
This novel is smart and fast-paced and full of intrigue. The characters have depth and are believable. But the most believable aspect of Love Thy Neighbor is the story itself -- at no point did I find myself disbelieving the storyline or the plot development. In fact, I found myself completely caught up in Gilleo's narrative of the inner workings of a sleeper cell; how they operate in their effort to commit a crime that will have drastic ramifications for thousands of people.
In this novel, Gilleo is a storyteller of a terrorist cell (and their activities) that comes across as a completely reasonable scenario, which makes it all the more disturbing and downright frightening. Along with that storyline is one of a "normal" everyday neighborhood, one with characters we know too well, neighbors we can completely relate to.
Gilleo has hit a home run with Love Thy Neighbor. Any author who can write suspense that keeps you reading page after page, chapter after chapter -- way past your normal bedtime, until your vision is blurry -- is an author worth reading...and worth keeping an eye on. His books will be a worthy addition to your bookshelf, alongside any suspense novels that you consider the cream of the crop.
This novel is smart and fast-paced and full of intrigue. The characters have depth and are believable. But the most believable aspect of Love Thy Neighbor is the story itself -- at no point did I find myself disbelieving the storyline or the plot development. In fact, I found myself completely caught up in Gilleo's narrative of the inner workings of a sleeper cell; how they operate in their effort to commit a crime that will have drastic ramifications for thousands of people.
In this novel, Gilleo is a storyteller of a terrorist cell (and their activities) that comes across as a completely reasonable scenario, which makes it all the more disturbing and downright frightening. Along with that storyline is one of a "normal" everyday neighborhood, one with characters we know too well, neighbors we can completely relate to.
Gilleo has hit a home run with Love Thy Neighbor. Any author who can write suspense that keeps you reading page after page, chapter after chapter -- way past your normal bedtime, until your vision is blurry -- is an author worth reading...and worth keeping an eye on. His books will be a worthy addition to your bookshelf, alongside any suspense novels that you consider the cream of the crop.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By cottercat
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book started off good, but then it turned into a long preachy type of treatise about domestic terrorism. BORING. I kept reading for several chapters hoping to get past the preaching and back into the story... but finally gave up. I'm 51 years old, and this is only one of three books in my lifetime that I started reading but didn't like enough to finish (life is just too short to waste on being lectured at on your off time).
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
A little slow in some parts but the thought that this could happen or will happen is very scary. It's called terrorism for a reason. It had my attention and couldn't read fast enough to get through the intense chase.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Jo Linsdell
Format:Paperback
Love thy Neighbour is an exciting read from start to finish. Mark Gilleo shows a talent for creating suspense as he unfolds a story all too relevant to events that have taken place in the real world over recent years.
I highly recommend this book and I'll definitely be on the look out for more titles by this author.
I highly recommend this book and I'll definitely be on the look out for more titles by this author.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Ashley
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I really enjoyed this book!! Never a dull moment and moved along at a perfect pace. There was a lot of descriptive information on things I know nothing about, but not to the point where it was annoying; I learned quite a few things! You can tell the author did his research and is most likely pretty smart himself. I plan on reading more books by Mr. Gilleo.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Kept me interested and thinking the whole time. It you want a good book that keeps you guessing, then this is the one for you.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loved it
Scared the heck out of me, it is a book that makes you wonder about the world we live in
Published 8 days ago by Margaretann Lelinho
4.0 out of 5 stars
FASCINATING and SCARY
This was so interesting and intriguing. I am sure this story is so much closer to what actually happens in government than anyone wants to know about. Read more
Published 10 days ago by Michelle W. Mckell
5.0 out of 5 stars
WOW!!!
So, true to life in today's world, this book kept me up reading, just trying to find out who would be caught? Read more
Published 12 days ago by Marlaina Ibrahim
5.0 out of 5 stars
Much better than your typical us against the terrorist novel
Ever since the end of the cold war, authors have been focusing on terrorism as the new boogeyman (with good reason) and most take an approach of a super hero ex-military battling... Read more
Published 15 days ago by T. Howlin
5.0 out of 5 stars
People's
I really enjoyed this book it makes you think about your neighbor you look at people in a different way
Published 24 days ago by rose brow
5.0 out of 5 stars
Factual Fiction
After following recent news in Boston this book doesn't seem so far fetched regarding what we think we knowabout our neighbors
Published 27 days ago by Diane Albritton
5.0 out of 5 stars
Book review for Love Thy Neighbor
This book kept me awake most of the night as I couldn't put it down. It was a well developed plot that took many interesting twists and turns and leaves you contemplating some of... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Deborah Maples
5.0 out of 5 stars
Neighbor???????
This was a very compelling story. Since the cold war people in the States have been aware of spies. This was a suspense filled story. I loved it. It was very hard to put down.
Published 3 months ago by William Kyle
5.0 out of 5 stars
Really Good
This story has twists and turns that keep you reading until the end. Really good - very different storyline that what I usually read.
Published 4 months ago by ABQReader
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great read
I thought I would take a chance on a new author, and was pleasantly surprised with this book. Very good story and good description of the characters. Read more
Published 7 months ago by JonG
