White: A Novel [Hardcover]

Christopher Whitcomb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 26, 2005

Islamic and Christian fundamentalists unleash a well-coordinated series of attacks all across the American heartland. Stolen radioactive material, a high-level spy, a mysterious break into top-secret data-encryption technology, twisting plots and spiraling conspiracies are all linked with fast-paced, cinematic crosscutting. In this thriller, FBI agent Jeremy Waller returns, as does tough-as-nails Elizabeth Beechum, now vice president, and the enigmatic billionaire Jordan Mitchell.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The hero of Black (2004) returns to star in a thriller plot that's pretty familiar, but which becomes steadily more absorbing through understated treatment and well-done incidentals. Jeremy Waller, a dedicated family man and FBI special agent, is on his way back from Indonesia, where he was rooting out terrorists with a lethal sidekick known as G.I. Jane, when a fleet of terrorist planes attacks not only Washington but a handful of other American cities. Could American fundamentalists be in league with Islamic terrorists? Such speculation is only the tip of the cabalistic iceberg as Waller infiltrates a shadow arm of the Christian Identity movement called the Phineas Priesthood. Black's Senator Elizabeth Beechum is back, a political veteran with questionable ties to big business, as vice president; she and naïve, skittish new President David Ray Venable clash repeatedly. Whitcomb, a 15-year veteran of the FBI, is dead-on with the tech talk and introduces a slew of tight plot lines and characters (time line location headings help) before bringing everything together complexly and believably. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Maybe we've become easier to scare since 9/11, but Whitcomb leaves nothing to chance in this fully loaded follow-up to Black (2004). A blizzard is crippling the nation's capital while an untried new president is arranging his tchotchkes in the Oval Office, and an unlikely fellowship of Islamic and Christian fundamentalists unleashes a well-coordinated series of attacks all across the American heartland. Stir in stolen radioactive material, a high-level sleeper spy, a mysterious invasion into top-secret data-encryption technology, detailed weapons specifications, an alphabet soup of government TLAs (three letter agencies), twisting plots and spiraling conspiracies, a wild-card agent called G.I. Jane, and a one-eyed albino, all linked with fast-paced, cinematic crosscutting, and you've got more than enough thriller to keep fans of David Hagberg, Brian Haig, Vince Flynn, or Andy McNab happy. FBI agent Jeremy Waller returns, as does tough-as-nails Elizabeth Beechum, now vice president, and the enigmatic billionaire Jordan Mitchell, who still seems like something out of James Bond. Over the top? Only if you stop to think about it, and who wants to do that? Pass the sunscreen. David Wright
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (July 26, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316600806
• ISBN-13: 978-0316600804
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,358,594 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Huh?, September 10, 2006

By 

Mark Shneour - See all my reviews
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This review is from: White: A Novel (Hardcover)

I give this book 2 stars only because it started out in an intriguing manner. It very soon devolved into an inpenetrably ponderous plot populated with a confounding array of inextricably interlinked characters.

I had little idea what the heck was going on very early in the story, and had no clue where I was by the end. Maddeningly unsatisfying.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not As Bad As I Thought Read, March 22, 2006

By 

Jon Gerloff (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: White: A Novel (Hardcover)

White is not my genre of book, but a friend lent me it and I didn't want to be rude. Surprisingly, I was entertained. Up to a point. White is an over-confusing thriller/mystery/techno something or other, ala Tom Clancy. Whitcomb kept the pacing up and was informative to a fault. People don't just pick up guns and shoot, they pick up burl-wood embossed fill-in the blank name and add some more adjectives piece of out of this world weaponry, and you get the idea. Whitcomb does his research, but does all that make for great story telling? Did I care about any of these characters? The ending is anti-clamactic. I felt, at the end, all this for that? It's like listening to an elaborate set up for a joke and then there's a weak punchline. But Whitcomb does have a main character in Jeremy Waller that can fight crime with the like Robo-Cop, go to church with his family of five and best of all, wind up in his next novel.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as "Black", September 7, 2005

By 

Donald A. Newell "Avid Old Reader" (Vancouver, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: White: A Novel (Hardcover)

Thoroughly enjoyable story by an author whose credibility with his subject matter is unquestionable. His cast of supporting characters has already started to lose luster. Byzantine plots inside the Beltway are getting increasingly hard to believe as we watch the ineptness of both parties as they really "perform the nation's business." By creating a shadow government that is really running things, Whitcomb tends to equate D.C. with Hogworts. All that having been said, the book is well worth reading just for the clear grasp of HRT procedures and some of the seamier side of the world we live in.