A Thriller with Intelligence

This book is one of those few thrillers where there is more to it than action, in the best tradition of John LeCarre. But it is much more philosophical than even the best LeCarre.

The region comes alive in Stone's prose, as does the millennial angst that a lot of people felt last year. A knowledge of the region will help readers understand what's really going on here, but so too will a knowledge of philosophy.

I read this several months ago, and it still sticks with me. The hauntingness of the characters' predicaments. The shock of the violence towards the end. It really does stay in my mind as one of the best suspense novels I've read in years. And yet, there's always something more than suspense going on.