Reviewed By Faridah Nassozi for Readers’ Favorite. 4 stars
In Colin Heston's 9/11 Two, Sarah's family left Russia when she was only five years old in pursuit of the American dream and a chance to give their daughter a better life. Things, however, did not exactly turn out as they had hoped and slowly Sarah drifted away from her parents, eventually cutting them off completely and landing herself in a partnership with a professor at Oxford, one with sinister intentions for the western world. While Sarah's parents desperately search for their daughter, she is living a new life alongside terrorist mastermind Shalah Muhammud. Racing against time, and amidst the usual chaos between the concerned government authorities, world renowned criminologist Larry MacIver is putting the pieces of the puzzle together but the enemy is much closer than he could ever imagine. Will they solve the puzzle before it is too late or is America looking at a repeat of the worst day in history?
Colin Heston's 9/11 Two has all the right ingredients for a fast-paced, captivating thriller. Every page you turn brings you closer and closer to history repeating itself with another chapter of 9/11 while you cross your fingers and hope for the good guys to get the much-needed breakthrough and save America. If you love reading terrorism fiction, you will find this story very appealing. Colin Heston's 9/11 Two is yet another horrifying but necessary reminder of the ever impending dark cloud that looms close. It is a caution that in the fight against terrorism and any other man-made evil, the enemy is often much closer than you think.
Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2018 by Michael S. Scott 4.0 stars Realistic terrorism thriller Amazon review
Colin Heston's 9/11 Two is an engaging work of fiction for those interested in how terrorists, and those who seek to thwart them, might actually think about what they're doing. The story, set variously in New York City, New Jersey, England, India, Israel, Egypt, and Kyrgyzstan, is, yes, about a terrorist plot against the United States, but it is as much about the psychological imperatives that motivate and guide each character as the tale unfolds. Heston has a remarkable ear for the voices of his characters, leaving the reader feeling as though she is inside the mind of: a ruthless, but intellectual male Muslim terrorist; an overweight, underloved, and disaffected American daughter of Russian immigrants; an out-of-the-mainstream criminologist bent on garnering respect for his theories; a compulsively subservient Indian doctoral student craving the attention and respect of his American mentor; a gung-ho, semi-bright American police commander straddling the realms of policing, politics and academia; and several others. Heston, himself a trained criminologist, uses his academic knowledge to elucidate the real tensions among the various ideas about how best to combat and control terrorism in the modern era. And yet, remarkably, Heston's prose leaves no traces of the dry and obtuse academic style in which he was trained, and instead reveals a facility for lively and detailed storytelling that keeps the reader eagerly turning the pages right through to the end.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 8, 2013 Amazon Verified Purchase
Initially I found this book to be a real page turner but as the story progressed, the writer introduced some Police Academy characters which changed the ethos of the novel. I found that the portrayal of the Police hierarchy, FBI & CIA distracting and began to wonder if I was reading an action or comedy novel.
I would urge the author to choose a theme and stick with it. This said, I did enjoy the book.