The Yale campus becomes the site of an increasingly tense siege in this stunning novel from bestseller White (Dead Time). After unidentified attackers quietly take over a building belonging to one of Yale’s secret societies, they transform it into a virtual fortress holding an unknown number of students hostage. As officials become aware of what has happened, the response escalates in predictable fashion, but these hostage takers are completely unpredictable. They make no demands, agree to no negotiations and execute or release hostages as they choose. Suspended Boulder, Colo., policeman Sam Purdy eventually teams with maverick FBI agent Christopher Poe and CIA terror expert Deirdre Drake in an effort outside official channels to figure out what’s going on. Brilliantly conceived and executed, this intellectually challenging and provocative thriller brings home the lesson that 9/11 might have been a mere prelude to more sophisticated assaults. (Aug.)

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(Publisher’s Weekly, June 8)