The Bank of Fear

New York: Avon Books, 1995. First Printing [Stated]. Mass market paperback. Good. [10], 388, [2] pages. Cover has some wear, soiling, and creases. Investigating a murder in London, freelance industrial spy Sam Hoffman discovers a secret institution that hides billions of dollars that have been stolen from one of the world's most dangerous leaders. David Reynolds Ignatius (born May 26, 1950) is an American journalist and novelist. He is an associate editor and columnist for The Washington Post. He has written eleven novels, including Body of Lies, which director Ridley Scott adapted into a film. He is a former adjunct lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and currently Senior Fellow to the Future of Diplomacy Program. He has received numerous honors, including the Legion of Honor from the French Republic, the Urbino World Press Award from the Italian Republic, and a lifetime achievement award from the International Committee for Foreign Journalism. In 1986 Ignatius left the Journal for The Washington Post. From 1986 to 1990 he was the editor of the "Outlook" section. From 1990 to 1992 he was foreign editor and oversaw the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. From 1993 to 1999 he served as assistant managing editor in charge of business news. In 1999 he began writing a twice-weekly column on global politics, economics and international affairs. Ignatius's writing has also appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Foreign Affairs, The New Republic, Talk Magazine, and The Washington Monthly. Derived from a Kirkus review: This book is the third (after Siro, and Agents of Influence) in Ignatius's cycle on America and the Middle East. A read-in-one-sitting thriller with a philosophical streak, it's also a modern-day Robin Hood story in which Maid Marian fights and Robin Hood has his political consciousness raised. Marian is Iraqi Lina Alwan, a `trusted employee' at an Iraqi front company in London. Her boss is the corrupt and virtually unassailable Nasir Hammoud. Sam Hoffman, the son of a retired CIA agent, is Robin Hood, and he wants to stay out of dirty politics. Hoffman unwittingly gets Alwan into trouble. Once she is out of Hammoud's good graces, she must destroy him or be destroyed. But Alwan cannot bring herself to accept the warrior's mantle until the body count rises beyond even her fearful tolerance. She goes underground and becomes the key instrument in the undoing of the government that backs Hammoud. Meanwhile, Hoffman has to fend off his father and the Mossad. Ignatius, assistant managing editor for the Washington Post, spent years in the Middle East as a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. His knowledge of Arab culture enables him to vivify the world of Iraqis living abroad as he captures all its elaborate manners, refinements in psychological torture (the parachuting episode is an especially creative example), and erotic flamboyance. At the same time he uses his knowledge of international finance to counterpoint the chase plot with the suspenseful elements of encrypted passwords, numerous Swiss bank accounts, and a slippery $158 million. Ignatius is both artist and craftsman. Lina Alwan is an unforgettable hero; the send-up of the CIA (especially Hoffman Sr.'s history lesson at the end) is hysterical; and the depiction of the Iraqis offers a glimpse into a dark and mysterious power that affects us more than we know.