Tranquility Initiative
Joan Meijer
Eloquent, Aug 15 2010, $16.95
ISBN: 9781609114336

In a bid for a second term, President Charles Anderson must end the latest American Middle East war in Astrakhan. Like Iraq and Afghanistan, this endless conflict has cost lives and treasure, but mostly a tired American people. To insure victory at the ballot box, he must win in the Middle East where Muslims loath the invaders. His Medici Group advisors insist we avoid another humiliating retreat by deploying the Tranquility Initiative, which uses internationally banned anthrax as a weapon of mass destruction.

Terrorists steal two containers that they believe hold explosives from Trabzon Base in Turkey. They smuggle the boxes into New York City, but in Times Square they are surprised by what they find when they open the tightly sealed container; strips of aluminum foil with nothing else inside falls to the ground. The terrorists unwittingly introduce Anthrax that quickly spreads around the world from the most internationally tied city. CDC anthrax expert Doctor Cassandra Williams and New York Senator Richland Powell try to prevent the unleashing of the second box as the terrorists now know what the aluminum contains.

One would hope this could not happen, but with Iran-Contra allies like Hussein and the Taliban in the 1980s, the unsolved anthrax mailing, etc. Joan Meijer provides a powerful plausible cautionary thriller. The lead pair represents the turbines driving the tale as the Tranquility Initiative combines elements from the medical thriller with that of a political tale. Fans will be hooked from the moment the box is stolen as Ms. Meijer's premises are the reelection of the president supersedes national interests at any cost and that the consequences of decisions today will surface in a decade or two in the future.

Harriet Klausner