IS NEW YORK BURNING? By Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins Full Circle Price: Rs 195 Pages: 309

The apocalyptic thriller may not have been invented on September 11, 2001, but the worst ever terrorist attacks on American soil have inspired a new generation of sensational pulp. The cocktail is familiar: frenzied jehadi terrorists, proliferating weapons of mass destruction and the predictable target, the US. Much of what has been produced, however, would stretch the credulity of even the most paranoid or the naive. Finally, however, Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins build an almost-plausible nightmarish scenario that feeds on recent events to create a compelling two-hour read. Written in the familiar, fast-paced, well-researched style of the two authors, Is New York Burning? is a work of fiction about events that could well happen-even tomorrow.

ON TERROR'S TRAIL: Collins (left) and Lapierre play on nightmarish scenarios

A nuclear weapon is smuggled into New York City and will be detonated unless the US persuades Israel to withdraw from the Occupied Territories. The novel makes a convincing case of how this can take place. Consider what would happen if two most famous terrorists get together. Osama bin Laden and Imad Mugniyeh. While the former is part of global folklore, the latter is much less known. With a reward of $25 million on his head and on the FBI's most wanted list, Mugniyeh "avoids publicity like a cat avoids water". Before 9/11, it was Mugniyeh who had the dubious credit of causing the most American killings in terrorist attacks.

Mugniyeh meets bin Laden in his sanctuary on the flanks of the Hindukush with a leather case carrying a nuclear-weapon design handed over to him by Saddam Hussein before the American invasion of Iraq. Saddam had charged Mugniyeh with the following responsibility: "Do not seek mindless, bloody vengeance... Employ the ultimate power these plans can give you to achieve something positive, something that will get true justice for our brothers in Palestine ...."

Major-General Habib Bol, the former chief of the ISI, and father of Pakistan's nuclear programme Abdul Sharif Ahmed hand over a Pakistani nuclear weapon mated with a detonator to Mugniyeh and bin Laden. The weapon is smuggled into India and shipped from Mumbai to the shores of New York. Then, the blackmail begins. It becomes clear that there is not even a ghost of a chance that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will agree to withdraw from the Occupied Territories to save the lives of millions of New Yorkers. Will New York survive?

Much of the action takes place in the White House. While the President gets short shrift, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice emerges as the real asset. It is Condi who convinces Ahmed not to "tarnish his enormous prestige ... by supporting a nuclear holocaust". But unlike the dismal portrait of interagency coordination in the US painted by former American official Richard Clarke, Is New York Burning? suggests this may not be the case. When push comes to shove, the US will fight to the last to save its soil-and with a bit of luck-even manage to fight off the threat to its most magnificent city.