Prayers for the Assassin: A Novel (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: war museum, pockmarked dandy, fourth nuke, Ibn Azziz, Old One, Black Robes (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Taking post-9/11 conspiracy theories that blamed the attacks on Zionist agents as the seed for this unusual thriller, Ferrigno (The Wake-Up) posits a nuclear terrorist onslaught in 2015 on New York City, Washington, D.C., and Mecca that has all the earmarks of a Mossad operation. The blue states are moved by these horrors to convert to Islam, while the red states break away from the Islamic Republic, forming a Christian republic in the South. By 2040, three major parties struggle for control in the Islamic Republic: the moderate State Security forces, under Redbeard; the Black Robes, a fundamentalist religious police force; and the top-secret Assassins, under the Old One. When Sarah Dougan, Redbeard's niece and a respected historian, reinvestigates the 2015 attack for a new book, The Zionist Betrayal?, the Old One sics his deadliest assassin on her. Running from Seattle to Vegas, Sarah has a protector in her lover, an ex-fedayeen soldier named Rakkim Epps, whose agnostic POV anchors the novel. Fans of instapundit politics will love this thriller, which has the cinematic motion and atrocity F/X of a good airport read. However, Ferrigno's gimmick—the transformation of America into a cartoon version of Islam—lends the proceedings a damaging air of implausibility. (Feb.)
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From Bookmarks Magazine

Prayers marks a departure for Ferrigno, whose previous books focused on life in contemporary Southern California. In Ferrigno's neo-Orwellian world, Mount Rushmore has disappeared, LAX has become Bin Laden International, and midday prayers interrupt the Super Bowl. Critics expressed different ideas about the plot, using words such as "preposterous," "credible," and even "ordinary" to describe it. There's no doubt, however, that Ferrigno raises important questions about religious freedom while handling the subject of Islamic faith with great insight and evenhandedness. If the plot sometimes overwhelms character development, he still allows his creations to air their own opinions without moralizing. In sum: a fast-paced thriller with timely appeal.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1st ed/1st printing edition (February 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743272897
• ISBN-13: 978-0743272896
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (95 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #429,454 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A future I hope we never see, February 10, 2006

By	Brian Baker (Santa Clarita, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I won't rehash the storyline here; you can read that in the publishing reviews.

I will preface by saying that I spent five years living in the Middle East, and I have to say that based on my experience Ferrigno accurately captures the mind-set and atmosphere that pervades societies run by Muslim theocrats.

This book should serve as a wake-up call for those who value traditional Western values in today's atmosphere of radical Islamo-fascism. In that respect it's very Orwellian.

But better still, there's a really good story wrapped into this package, and I jammed through this book very quickly. The characters are fully fleshed out, engaging, and believable. You really like the good guys, and hate the bad guys. Darwin, the "Assasin", is a terrific villain; complex, many-faceted, extremely dangerous; kind of an athletic Hannibal Lechter without the medical degree. The plot is tight, complex and believable; the climax is satisfying.

I really recommend this book. Ferrigno's done a great job, and this has prompted me to see if he's written other books which I haven't yet read so I can get hold of them.

56 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars art becoming life, February 8, 2006

By	Maureen Zimmerman "wild irish rose" (River Forest, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I read this book in 2 days, couldn't put it down, or shut up about it!If you enjoyed "The Handmaid's Tale" by Attwood, you'll recognize the world tipped on it's head, though with even greater horror and worse, the very real plausibity of it! Just look around and watch the Islamic world riot and terrorize and threaten beheadings for caricatures/cartoons published in Denmark, and listen for the moderate islamic voices--they're no where to be found. You'll love the strong characters who stay with you long after you've finished reading. You will also no longer view current world events in the same way. You will shudder at the looming possibity. Another fun task I had was looking for areas that seem like "clues" for a message hidden in the "mistakes" in the text. I'm reading the book again with a closer eye toward this. Such as the character Marian on one page being referred to as Miriam on the page opposite; and the scene in the roller rink described on the left hand page and the character sliding on the ice on the opposite page; then further down the page going back and referring to the singing wheels on the skates! No way is this a sloppy book. I'm having great fun with it. Haven't enjoyed a book like this in quite awhile. So I'm off to buy 4 more books to give to friends.

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ferrigno: I Can't Wait For The Sequel! (Just Brush Up On The Islam A Bit), April 13, 2006

By	Caesar M. Warrington (Lansdowne, PA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Robert Ferrigno does make some glaring mistakes in his presentation of Islam. In the new society it seems as if he freely mixes Sunni and Shi'ite together, naming an airport after Khomeini (a Shi'ite), yet using the term, "imam" in the Sunni sense of the word. And Ferringno clearly has little understanding of the exclusively Shi'ite practice of "muta'a" ("pleasure marriage" or temporary marriage). There is more to Shi'ite temporary marriage than Ferrigno has it with johns driving into the ruins of Disneyland, banging hookers and when finished merely pronouncing three times: "I divorce thee." Muta'a is not condoned or practiced by the world's majority Sunni Muslim community. Even most Shi'ites today are embarrassed of it. As for calling the headscarf "habib," Ferrigno never called it any such thing! The term he uses is "hajib" which is probably an honest to goodness typo for "hijab" (by the way, "hajib" was the term used for a court official in Muslim Spain and North Africa).

I believe the previous reviewer is trying to make Ferrigno out as some sort of bigot or islamophobe. I don't see it. Rather, although there is harsh prejudice against the remaining Catholic minority, he shows that the majority of Americans in the world of PRAYERS FOR THE ASSASSIN are now Muslims and they just want to live their lives in peace and happiness. That is why there is a small faction of hardliners (the Dark Robes) trying to impose a Talibani style of society and also why you have the Hasan-i-Sabah wannabe, the "Old One" conspiring to bring about the rebirth of the Caliphate. Let us also not forget that the heroes of this story, Rakkim and Sarah, are both proud Muslims.

All that being said, let me just add that this is still one fantastic novel. Ferrigno incorporates the best elements of the thriller and the alternative history and future shock genres into one supercharged and gripping tale of a broken and demoralized America.

I believe Ferrigno is making some clever and pointed statements about the spiritual state of affairs in America with this book.
We now live in a land where the mall, not the church, is now the center of town. In a time when you need to wait in line for almost anything but a seat at church. More Americans nowadays care to know every triviality about their favorite actors, athletes, singers, even pornstars, than what is going on in their government, their religion, their world. Ferrigno created a world where these negative trends and selfish pursuits of ours might take us. The celebrity and the popular culture are what really matters for far too many Americans today. Note that where in real life the values of faith and family and tradition are still strong - the South and Utah, or amongst the Latino Catholic populations in the Southwest, Ferrigno has them in his novel to be either independent of the Islamic Republic or on the verge of rebellion.

Ferrigno's seems to understand that when you no longer believe in 'something,' you are now open to believe in 'anything.'