A thrilling expose of what happens when terror and disaster strike a man just as he finally achieves his goal in life. David Fitzgerald, estranged from his depressive wife and their son, is a teacher in the midst of a multi-racial melting pot of students at Coney Island High School, New York. Every day the atmosphere in the classroom is explosive but David perseveres. Sometimes it's worth it -- especially in the case of his star pupil Elizabeth Hamdy, a beautiful shy Muslim girl whose father brought the family to America where, following the suicide of his wife, a fanatical freedom fighter, he has married an American woman. Elizabeth is excited by her new life as an American teenager, shedding her traditional 'hijab' veil for Tommy Hilfiger and Gap much to the horror of her brother, mini-cab driver Nasser who, like his dead mother, is a fanatic ready to die for the cause of the Jihad. David is the son of a WWII hero and obssessed with heroism. On a school bus taking his class on a field trip to study heroism at a museum, a bomb explodes and David becomes a hero when he rescues a student. Now he is the man of the hour, a media star, a hero for his pupils.
But when he becomes the police's prime suspect he finds himself no longer the hero, hounded by the media and reviled in public. Now he must find the bomber before he strikes again, to clear his name...
Author Biography
Peter Blauner is the author of three novels, Casino Moon, Slow Motion Riot (winner of the 1992 Edgar Allan Poe award for best first novel) and The Intruder.
