The Scorpion's Gate » (Bargain)

Richard A. Clarke began his federal service in 1973 in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. In the Reagan administration, he was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence. In the first Bush administration, he was the Assistant Secretary of State for Politico-Military Affairs and then a member of the National Security Council staff. He served for eight years as a special assistant to President Clinton and was National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism for both President Clinton and President George W. Bush. From 2001 to 2003, he was the Special Adviser to the President for Cyberspace Security, and chairman of the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board. He is now chairman of Good Harbor Consulting. Besides Against All Enemies, he is most recently the author of the much-discussed "Ten Years Later," a future history of the war on terror published in The Atlantic Monthly.

The insider whose warnings about terrorism on U.S. soil went unheeded-and whose book Against All Enemies rocketed to the top of bestseller lists-now presents his first novel: an all-too-believable story of politics, oil, espionage, and the earthshaking consequences that may lie at the end of the road ahead.

The Washington Post - Gary Hary

Some readers of The Scorpion's Gate will happily settle for a rapid-deployment plot and political intrigue high and low. Airport sales should make it a success. But a more thoughtful audience will find itself required to give some thought to what the United States is and is not doing in the most volatile region in the world. If Clarke does nothing else but cause some readers to question our ludicrous reliance on unstable oil supplies, wonder whether we have even begun to understand Islamic culture, begin to demand a more subtle and layered approach to the Middle East, doubt our ability to export democracy at the point of a bayonet, or gain maturity in foreign affairs, he will have done a service.