THE FIFTH HORSEMAN

by Larry & Dominique Lapierre Collins ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 25, 1980

Pop-historians Collins and Lapierre (Is Paris Burning?, Freedom at Midnight) try their first ""novel""--but this laboriously detailed imaginary scenario of nuclear blackmail has, not too surprisingly, less novelistic texture and far thinner characterizations than any of their non-fiction reconstructions. The premise: Pres. Qaddafi of Libya has, via theft and threats, used French secrets to create a three-megaton hydrogen bomb; he has arranged for Palestinian terrorists to sneak the barrel-sized bomb into Manhattan; so now, after demonstrating his seriousness with a test blast in No. Africa, he threatens to detonate the bomb (killing nearly seven million) unless the U.S. persuades Israel to pull out of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The rest of the book, then (except for flashback biographies of the Palestinians--a sister and her two brothers), is a constantly shifting presentation of the U.S. efforts to handle the crisis. At the White House, a very noble President (Carter in every detail but name) and his advisers talk and talk: they toy with a wipeout attack on Libya; they brief the wormy N.Y. mayor; they call Israel's Begin (whom the Prez loathes); they hear psychiatric work-ups on Qaddafi (""he was humiliated as a kid and he's never gotten over it. . . the man is in a state of psychic erection""); they slowly convince Qaddafi to talk to the Prez on the phone, but the wily Libyan is beyond compromise; and eventually they start planning to invade Israel and force the Israelis out of the disputed spots. Meanwhile, in Manhattan, the FBI, CIA, and NYPD secretly search for the bomb and also try to figure out how it entered the city, thus tracing the terrorists (who are now quarreling among themselves). Plus: scientists discuss evacuation and bomb shelters; a reporter gets onto the hitherto-secret story (leading to scenes of ""Punch"" and ""Abe"" at the Times debating newspaper ethics); and so on, around and around, until the bomb is found and defused in the nick of time. Impressive? Yes--for its step-by-step completeness, detailed research, and relative seriousness. But while fact-seekers will probably be annoyed by the fictive trappings here, most novel readers will find even more crucial problems: the lack of central characters or emotional involvement; the dreadfully slow pace and exposition-heavy dialogue; the distracting mixture of real names (some already dated) with made-up ones (the N.Y. mayor is ""Abe Stern""); and the obvious lack of feel for N.Y.C. (there are repeated, sweeping references, for instance, to ""the tenements of Queens""). Call this an uneasy, half-successful hybrid, then: a longwindedly competent but not-quite-real-enough dramatization for those eager to hear what would happen if; a sizable disappointment for readers who know from The Devil's Alternative how gripping international-disaster fiction can be when it's done up right.

Pub Date: Aug. 25, 1980

ISBN: 0786102012

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1980

Categories: FICTION