A principled American pilot and his justice-obsessed attorney wife become entangled in a global terrorist plot that will test their bonds of love, trust, and dedication.

Stu doesn’t want to admit that there’s distance between he and his wife Angie, but the locked bathroom door and the mysterious bulging folder on her desk are unavoidable signs. When he discovers that she’s taken up the case of a ritualistically murdered woman from halfway around the world, he’s both proud and dismayed. Stu and Angie don’t need any more death threats after a lifetime of fighting for their principles and serving their country. Their life together–which has included raising children–is supposed to be about togetherness, not untangling violent terrorist plots. In this case, the insane Zuehb Azwad will play a much bigger role in Angie and Stu’s marriage than either of them anticipate, as a heart-wrenching and ultimately violent battle plays out across multiple continents.

Wedding the hard-charging American fatalism of a mid-90s Tom Clancy novel with the introspective emotional observations in the face of infrastructural change of Kazuo Ishiguro, FACE OF OUR FATHER is an unusual blend of action-adventure and portrait of domestic intimacy. While Stu and Angie are undoubtedly the white hats, and Zuehb Azwad’s associated cronies the dysfunctional black hats, the basic hero versus villain structure is more rewarding than this pairing would suggest. This is due to Pitir’s powerful narrative thrust, which opens each chapter with a bang and closes it with an anxious rush. Where the Cold War generated spy novels, Pitir may be the most notable pioneer in the post-9/11 genre of “terrorist page-turner.”

With well-placed internal monologues, urgent pacing, and a clear delineation of characters and their relationships to one another, FACE OF OUR FATHER maps the craggy terrain of the violent world of power struggles, centuries-old grudges, and the ordinary fight to keep a good marriage going strong.

There’s more to the US involvement in the Middle East than what meets the eye. It is a grey area where you just don’t believe one side of the story. Face of Our Father is the one novel that shows both sides, proving that, aside from battles on the field we may win, there are battles within each of us, which we may lose.

Captain Stu Pierce is at that age where one expects to lead a quiet satisfactory life in the suburbs. But, alas, the life of a fighter pilot is not one without risks. His wife, Angie, is in danger. And he knows why. This mystery has kept him awake most nights and affects his performance. With a vow to save his wife and their marriage, Stu goes way beyond his capabilities to protect her.

Former Prosecutor Angela Pierce, international woman’s advocate, puts herself in the line of fire of Sala, the raping murderer. He’s back and as she writes against him, she’s threatened by pictures of a ritual stoning. She’s worried, but hides it from Stu because he is already conflicted about her line of work. When she receives death threats, she makes it her mission to find Sala’s true identity and destroy him. Together, the Pierces battle external and internal conflicts, but do they have a common enemy? Read on to find out.

This novel is a fast-paced thriller with plenty of in-air action, fighting sequences, and a mystery so gripping it keeps the reader hooked to the very end. What makes the character development remarkable is not their perfection, but, rather, their flaws. There is more to the life of a fighter pilot and a freedom fighter than what we are told to believe. It highlights the fact that regional conflicts are a two-sided coin; you may win at some points but may lose in others. Highly recommended.

It is rare to encounter an action thriller that does not shy away from in-depth character study. While readers of Nelson DeMille and, to some extent, Ken Follett, have been spoiled by characters that are deeper then the thickness of the novel in which they are featured, it is unusual to find a new author daring to reach for such heights (or depths) and doing it successfully.

“Face Of Our Father” by G. Egore Pitir has all the ingredients of a sumptuous thriller: Violent, complex plot, bursts of intense action, fanatically ideological terrorists, and an imperfect hero, whose determination overcomes his shortcomings (in this case, an airline captain with military background) and, naturally, a beautiful-yet-troubled love interest.

As the nature of this type of a novel requires, there is plenty at stake here (the lives of the heroes and an airliner full of innocent passengers), as well as realistic moral complexity that allows us to find ourselves doubting the heroes’ purity of motives and, despite ourselves, feel a twisted sympathy, on some level, with the villains.

Furthermore, in light of current events, the story could have been pulled off the evening news, with interesting locations, Islamic extremism, up-to-date technology and moral ambivalence. The action scenes are intense and highly believable, especially the physical aspects that excel in their imaginative choreography.

Perhaps most clearly defining the distance, or the difference, between the good guys and the villains in this novel (and in the world today) is the author’s succinctly phrased peek into the pilot’s mind at a moment of airborne crisis: “For a moment, he thought to pray to God, but God hadn’t trained him for this, the US Air Force had.”

Indeed, one could write a whole book out of this sentence alone.

In summary, the author of “Face Of Our Father” succeeded where many have failed. This is a great thriller with a soul. We look forward to his next novel.