Review – Homeland Insecurity

The Abanes intent in this debut fiction mystery is to sound the alarm about a real danger, and growing threat of homegrown terrorism in the United States. Their thriller rides a thin line between fiction and reality. It’s the one book readers don’t want to miss.

When ReichMan marched across the cracked sidewalks of Los Angeles, toward the Museum of Tolerance in the Simon Wiesenthal Center, his steps were firm, his purpose sure. Until he entered the building and saw the children-a class of seventh graders just beginning their museum tour-and a twinge of doubt slowed his pace-but only for a moment. The children were unavoidable collateral damage, just like in any war. He was damaged too, but from another kind of war, a social war with parents who abandoned him and a foster system that forced him onto the streets where he learned to hate.

Reporter Frank Delafield had just finished lunch and stood across the street from the Simon Wiesenthal Center when the deafening explosion blew the cell phone from his hand and shock waves threw him into the air. He flew through shattering glass and crumbling drywall and concrete, choking on dust and dirt. When his senses cleared he saw a gaping hole in the ground and bleeding body parts strewn everywhere. The Simon Wiesenthal Center had vanished.

Delafield is determined to investigate and write about the madman who detonated the blast, murdering thousands with his own suicide. Delafield’s investigation takes him to the FBI, Secret Service, and Special Agents Christine Carlyle and her partner, Eddie Stark, from the Department of Homeland Security. Their combined research led to men with strange sounding names, such as AryanUndertaker, White Fury, PsychoSS and Reichmarschall; men motivated by hate and racism with a single-minded purpose-revive Nazism and the Fourth Reich. Homegrown Terrorists.

Nationally recognized author and journalist, Richard Abanes, with his wife Evangeline, now step into the fiction arena with their debut thriller, Homeland Insecurity.” The book’s premise is taken from Abanes’ exhaustive investigation into white supremacist groups, such as Klansmen, neo-Nazis, and the hate-based Christian Identity Movement. Some white-supremacist leaders in the story are taken from notable figures in that bigoted community, like Richard Butler and Louis Beam. He warns readers some parts of the story may be offensive because he uses direct quotes and accurate descriptions where possible. This fictional expose is unsettling to say the least.