Bag Boys' Jihad

"I, for the life of me, cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked

our food supply, because it is so easy to do."

--Tommy Thompson, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, December 7, 2004

Just before he was killed, Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri, meet with al

Qaeda's Shura Council in an abandoned house in Pakistan. They discuss plans for a new holy

war, a large-scale bioterrorism attack on the US. For this war, they will partner with their former

enemy, the Iranians. The plan includes collecting samples containing infectious agents such as

cholera germs from patients seen in hospital emergency rooms in Pakistan and Bangladesh. The

samples are then sent to a makeshift laboratory in North Waziristan where the pathogens are

propagated and packaged for shipment to the US. Meanwhile in the US, a network of American-born

radicalized teen-agers is recruited and deployed as bag boys in supermarkets.

When Winston Sage, M.D., an offbeat, retired epidemiologist living in Santa Fe, was invited to

serve on a boondoggle State Committee on Bioterrorism, the last thing he could have imagined

was that he would unravel al Qaeda's planned strike on the US; be enlisted by the FBI; and be

personally commended by the President at the White House. Sage's unorthodox thinking clashes

with the FBI, but ultimately helps abort the attacks--well, almost.

Praise for The Bag Boys' Jihad:

"As in Grufferman's (The Warring States Conundrum, 2017) preceding novel, Win is a likable

protagonist. He has strong opinions but is open to others' suggestions; consequently, people

listen to him, even if his early declaration of an epidemic sounds far-fetched. The author astutely

shows the intricacies of the terrorists' plan, especially the multitude of participants. Some are

devout while others are horrified upon realizing the leaders consider certain individuals

expendable. Intelligent dialogue makes discussions about various strains of disease perfectly

comprehensible, aided by a steady momentum via brief chapters. Humor comes primarily from

Win's wife, Julia, whose sardonic comments are endearing. Once Win is entangled in the

potential terrorist plot, she simply says: 'I told you not to get involved with this dumb project.'

An absorbing jihadist thriller bolstered by complex villains and a winsome, levelheaded

protagonist."

--Kirkus Reviews