BKMT READING GUIDES
Red Sea: A Novel
by Emily Benedek
Hardcover : 384 pages
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Introduction
Four airliners are bombed out of the sky—a devastating string of attacks taking hundreds of lives and striking fear into people and governments around the globe. Marie Peterssen, an ambitious young aviation reporter, has a hunch about the crashes, and her suspicions are confirmed when she’s approached by Julian Granot, an Israeli airline security expert and former Special Forces commando who has noticed her work. Julian offers Marie a rare lead, one that will send her to London and later into the devastation of war-torn Iraq. With the help of a maverick FBI agent, Morgan Ensley, Marie stumbles onto the makings of a terrorist plot well beyond the bombing of four airliners: the detonation of a rogue nuclear device in New York harbor. The terrorists know that America’s most vulnerable spot is its transportation system, and they mean to exploit the flaw. Time is short. But Marie is in the grip of circumstances beyond her control. Julian’s intentions are unclear—is he helping a journalist uncover answers the world craves? Or is he setting up the girl to flush out an Islamic terrorist who killed Julian’s partner twenty years earlier? Julian holds the key, but Marie’s role in the frantic race to unravel the plot grows when she learns that she may be tied the terrorist leader in a more personal way. Author Emily Benedek was writing an article on counterterrorism for Newsweek when she came into contact with a high-level Israeli counterterrorism expert. Due to his ongoing role in international investigations, much of what she learned in the course of their talks could only be told in a novel. What emerges from those meetings is a bone-chilling story of suspense, as thrilling as it is plausible.
Excerpt
INTERNATIONAL AIRSPACE. MAY 5.At 30,000 feet, American Airlines Flight #147 from Paris to Boston flew according to routine. Airline food wasn't what it used to be, but in first class at least, the drinks were good. The crew had just finished a meal specially prepared by a Parisian eatery catering to airline personnel. Captain Jack Kelly switched autopilot on, and leaned back. "Did you see that new girl?" he asked his co-pilot, "the one with tits out to here?" He gestured with his hands toward the instrument panel. ...
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Discussion Questions
From the Author:1. What do you think made Marie agree to accept Julian’s offer? Have you ever been in a situation where you were asked to do something challenging but frightening?
2. How would you have answered if Julian had asked you to go to London to collect information for him?
3. Is Marie an impetuous character? Or a brave one? What does she have to prove?
4. Does Julian change over the course of the book?
5. What do you think of Marie’s mother?
6. Do you think Marie will help Julian again?
7. What will Morgan do next?
Notes From the Author to the Bookclub
A note from Emily to book clubs: Soon after 9/11, I wrote an article for Newsweek magazine about Israeli counter-terror experts. After the story ran, one of the people I’d interviewed called me and asked if I’d like to meet? After several visits, he asked me if I’d consider writing a book about airline security. He’d become convinced Washington wasn’t going to do the right thing. I immediately realized I wouldn’t be able to write the book as non-fiction because I’d compromise all my sources, many of whom were still active at very high levels. So I wrote the book as fiction. I wrote this book because I was terrified. I was in Manhattan on 9/11. I was bringing my three year-old to her first day at nursery school. Every day I looked out the window, expecting to see a mushroom cloud. Writing Red Sea helped calm my fears. I put my characters in just the situations I feared the most, and let them use their brains and what they learned from each other to get out of them. It helped me a great deal.Book Club Recommendations
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