The Shadow War »

GLEN SCOTT ALLEN has been a writer in residence at Reed College and taught at the University of Utah and Towson University. He has published more than a dozen short stories, and more than a hundred essays, reviews, and presentations on science, literature, popular culture, cryptography, and terrorism.

In the tradition of The Da Vinci Code, a brilliant new talent delivers a sweeping thriller that turns the entire history of America upside down.

Colonial historian Benjamin Wainwright is summoned to a secretive think tank in western Massachusetts by an old school friend who researches war-game theory. Upon his arrival, Wainwright discovers that his friend is dead and suspected of having leaked information. When the security analyst hired to investigate the case is targeted for assassination, Benjamin wonders: Was his friend’s death an accident—or murder?

A series of codes, forged documents, and secret family histories all point to the existence of a centuries-old conspiracy. Benjamin teams up with a beautiful Russian cultural attaché named Natalya Orlova, whose own family has a dark history with the KGB, to unravel the truth. The two set off on a dangerous mission that stretches from Washington, DC, to the French Riviera, to deep within the Siberian wilderness. Together, they discover the sinister forces that have pulled the strings of power in America—perhaps all the way back to its very founding.  What our characters learn will make us question everything we thought we knew about American history, from the Revolution to the Cold War, and what lies in store for the fate of the nation. 

With a gripping pace and enigmatic plot that drives the reader from one page to the next, The Shadow War is a highly intelligent thriller that asks: Who really runs the country, who controls our enemies, and to what lengths will they go to conceal their hidden agendas?

Publishers Weekly

Allen mines the American colonial period for his debut, a complicated but intriguing thriller that posits an audacious and original conspiracy theory. Out of the blue, Library of Congress historian Benjamin Wainright receives a call from an old college roommate, Jeremy Fletcher, now a fellow at the prestigious and secretive American Heritage Foundation, who invites Benjamin to come to the think tank in western Massachusetts for reasons he won't divulge over the phone. Benjamin arrives the next day to find Jeremy dead of a heart attack. Samuel Wolfe, a foundation "security analyst," immediately enlists Benjamin's aid in discovering why Jeremy, a nuclear war theorist, was interested in Benjamin's area of expertise, the Puritan era. Their quest for answers takes them from the Berkshires to a forbidding underground nuclear missile base in Russia. While some readers may find the connections between past and present tenuous, Allen keeps the action and the ideas flowing with commendable speed. (Nov.)