"What would you do if you turned on the television and saw you were the most wanted terrorist in the country?" "Gina Davies is about to find out. After spending a night with an attractive stranger, she has become a prime suspect in the investigation of an attempted terrorist attack. When police find three unexploded bombs at a stadium and her enigmatic lover goes missing, Davies spends five days on the run and witnesses every truth of her life twisted into a betrayal. The Unknown Terrorist is a relentless tour de force that paints a devastating picture of a contemporary society gone haywire, where the ceaseless drumbeat of terror-alert levels, newsbreaks, and fear of the unknown pushes one nation ever closer to the breaking point."--BOOK JACKET. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Starred Review. A life quickly flames out in Flanagan's firebrand follow-up to 2002's acclaimed Gould's Book of Fish. Gina Davies, a 26-year-old nightclub pole dancer (referred to throughout as "the Doll"), leads a provincial life in Sydney, Australia, spends $2,000 a month on clothes and is given to the occasional racist rant. But after a one-night stand with a man named Tariq, she turns on the TV and learns she's been pegged as the accomplice in an attempted terrorist attack on Sydney's Olympic stadium. She's instantly the most-wanted woman in Australia and the source of a raging tabloid media feeding frenzy led by sleazy TV journalist Richard Cody. The fast-paced narrative builds to a fittingly bloody crescendo, and Flanagan drops astutely cynical observations along the way (the Doll, for instance, "realized that her life was no longer what she made of it, but what others said it was"). A true page-turner as well as a timely, pithy critique of celebrity culture and the politics of fearmongering. (May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Sydney, Australia, post-9/11, may lack Mad Max's cutthroat gasoline pirates but is no less paranoid and dark. Gina Davies, a.k.a. the Doll, already leads a life in the margins. A pole dancer at the Chairman's Lounge, she's learned to embrace life's disappointments, socking away hundred-dollar bills in a hole in her bedroom ceiling while allowing herself one dream: to buy her own home one day. A chance meeting with a handsome surfer leads to a night of drug-infused sex. When the Doll wakes up, her tenuous shot at a "normal" life has disappeared, along with her lover whose face can be seen all over the news, a su)spected al Qaeda terrorist. The Doll is wanted for questioning, and soon the relentless media and government propaganda machine is spinning lies about every aspect of her existence, sending her up as Australia's first domestic terrorist. Flanagan's (Gould's Book of Fish) dystopic tale is raw, timely, cynical, and bleak. Recommended for mature audiences, especially for those unwilling to buy into the mass hysteria of the war on terror. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 1/07.] Christine Perkins, Burlington P.L., WA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information