The majority of this novel is transcriptions from recordings, so you immediately feel like your reading something you probably shouldn't be. Top secret stuff; the things you watch on TV the FBI, CIA and etc keep closed up and filed away from public eye.
In The Cooperating Witness, you first hear a telephone conversation between Jamal Hassim and his wife. They are discussing their Islamic charity program which they also work in partnership with an US Aids program. Their phone call is being accidently picked up by the NSA, things start go go awry. Certain words are chosen from that phone call that make it seem like there is a hidden message, a planned terrorist attack. Be careful what you say, you never know who is listening.
The FBI sends Conner Skilling, a cooperating witness from East Asia to find out what the Hassim's are up to. A cooperating witness is a criminal who helps out the FBI in leiu of punishment. I didn't know what a cooperating witness was until I read this book! Who knew?
Anyways, Conner is a retired con man who sets up a series of phone calls to find out the true motives of the Hassims. But what is uncovered will blow your mind. An international conspiracy with so many fingers in the pie, it's hard to deflect fact from fiction. A superb action thriller with legal ramifications. It takes a while to get used to the type, but once I did, I flew through the pages. I felt like I was in the inner circle of something big brewing. Definitely worth a read!
I didn't know what they were called either, but I knew they existed. I would like to recommend the new show on USA coming up near the end of October...White Collar. It's about a cooperating witness who is out of jail and only stays out if he helps catch other white collar con men since he's the best.
ReplyDeleteAnywayyy...this book sounds great!!! I really want to read it now. I love books that have a different way of telling the story like a diary or something.
-Lauren