While the plot is compelling and original, it's the characters' motivations that I found most interesting in Turkey Shoot. The book does a fine job presenting the complexities of the current state in the Middle East and Europe, and the influencing factors that incubate and nourish terrorism, including endless wars, dictatorships, family ties, revenge, love, socialist ideals, freedom, democracy, and surprisingly, only a bit of religion.

Dutton paints a believable picture not only of the locales, but the people as well. There is a pleasing pace, between character development and plot. Some thrilling books pull the action so quickly, you don't want to take the time to contemplate the characters. These people are believable: not too preachy, not too politically correct, likable. And they are not all the same, but have unique personalities that largely avoid stereotypes.

This book is naturally thought-provoking, without being painfully so. The ending is thankfully not predictable. Turkey Shoot is worth a read if you wonder about the terrorists behind the all too frequent news stories.

Some quibbles. In the ending, a lack of discussion by the characters about a possible explanation of the result was a tad unsatisfying. And the very beginning was a bit off-putting: in the first chapter, the key players were anonymized to the point that I had to just ignore it until I finished the book, and I then reread it to see what it had been about. Those problems were not present throughout the book: it moved along without such glitches, though it did suffer from more typos than I'm used to in comparable "good" books, but on par with the number found in fluffy paperbacks. Overall, nothing egregious, and quite a showing for a first-time novelist.