Follows David Fitzgerald, a Boston teacher initially hailed as a hero in a bombing and later vilified as the bomber, as he seeks to reclaim his life and find the true malefactor David Fitzgerald is a 40-year-old English teacher with the rare ability to reach at least some of his students at a poor high school in Coney Island. But one who he can't reach is Nasser Hamdy, a Palestinian boy so scarred by hate that he joins with terrorists to plant a bomb in a school bus. A combination of accident and courage turns Fitzgerald into a media hero when he keeps most of his class from boarding the bus and then risks his life to rescue a pregnant teenager who got on early. But circumstantial factors quickly turn the tide and make Fitzgerald a prime suspect in the bombing. He is savaged by the system but never officially accused. Blauner does everything well, from creating compelling scenes of urban terror, to making us believe in Fitzgerald as a gifted teacher, loving father, and exhausted husband. Blauner's background as a journalist also makes the media reaction within the story instantly credible--humanizing at least one member of the ravening media rat pack. Catch Blauner's two previous thrillers: Slow Motion Riot and The Intruder , both available in paperback. --Dick Adler The "man of the hour," David Fitzgerald, is a teacher at Coney Island High School who faces his responsibilities with all the right stuff: enthusiasm for learning, an empathic understanding of his students, and intellectual discipline. But when he becomes the lead suspect in the bombing of a school bus that results in the death of the driver, he soon learns that some things in life are beyond human control. In no time, he is chin-deep in trouble: suspended, ostracized, hounded by a rapacious press, and grilled by the police. Two other characters also take up the story: the real culprit, Nasser, a former student of Palestinian descent who is a member of a group waging a holy war against the United States, and his sister, Elizabeth, who still attends Coney Island High. Blauner's (The Intruder, LJ 4/15/96) gifts as a storyteller come through in mettlesome form, and the skill of the narrative is only surpassed by the subtle and thorough interpretation of human motives. Put this one on your list. -AA.J. Anderson, GSLIS, Simmons Coll., Boston Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. Taking a page from the Atlanta Olympics, Blauner turns a Coney Island high school teacher into a reluctant hero, and then a mercilessly persecuted suspect, in a terrorist bombing. Each day, David Fitzgerald teaches a course on the literature of heroism; each night, pondering the breakup of his marriage and his struggle to stay ahead of bills for his lawyers and for his son Arthur's expenses, he wonders whether he could ever be a hero himself. But David finds out more than he ever wanted to know about heroism when Nasser Hamdy, an unsuccessful Jordanian alumnus whose younger sister Elizabeth is David's star pupil, plants a bomb under the bus about to take David's students on a field trip. Though the bus driver is killed, David's delay in boarding his charges saves all but Seniqua Rollins, whom he pulls from the flames in a rescue that puts him on every front page in America. Blauner is particularly good on the ways David's original qualms about his packaging as a ubiquitous modern hero give way to a half-eager acceptance of his own unsought fame. But ambitious reporter Judy Mandel, as much out of her depth as David is out of his, finds that she can stay on top of the breaking story only by casting him as a potential suspecta crucifixion Blauner also evokes with cunning power. (His slyest touch: David is never indicted or even arrested, tried entirely in the unforgiving court of public opinion.) The trouble with this arresting premise, torn from yesterday's headlines, about the ironic interlocking of the roles of hero and traitor, is that it's got nowhere to go; even readers gulping down the tale at one sitting will easily see how it'll turn out. Despite the big push from the publisher, then, this smoothly predictable suspenser isn't the big success that The Intruder (1997) was. But Blauner's last thriller should be out in paperback just in time to read instead. (First printing of 175,000; $250,000 ad/promo budget) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. In Nasser, Blauner expertly captures the acute mix of anger, frustration and bewilderment of a young man who does not understand his new culture... -- The New York Times Book Review , Scott Sutherland