Schechter, Peter. Point of Entry. Rayo: HarperCollins. 2006. c.336p. ISBN 0-06-084330-6. $24.95. Fiction

Syrian agents have decided to attack the United States. With the connivance of a rogue Columbian politician who aims to seize the presidency of his own country, they plan to use South American drug mules to import enough uranium-235 to fashion a nuclear bomb. The uranium has to make its way from Russia, via a Pakistani nuclear scientist, to the Syrians, and from them into the hands of Juan Francisco Abdoul, president of the Columbian Senate. In the way stand two unlikely allies: newly elected Columbian President Marta Pradilla, a former beauty queen out to purge the corrupt old guard, and conservative U.S. President John Stockman. Readers who get by this thriller’s initial unevenness—stilted dialogue that carries too much exposition, flat prose that reads like a report, bureaucratic language, and awkward sentences—will be treated to a host of delights: a well-constructed, tightly interlocked plot; international settings created through the close observation of authentic detail; an engrossing relationship between two heads of state; and an immensely satisfying conclusion. Highly recommended for popular fiction collections.

Library Journal, 131, no. 3 (February 15, 2006), p. 109.