A debut novel by a noted counter-terrorism expert brings readers five years into the future, where faulty intelligence, hidden agendas, and a shaky Islamic government that has taken over the toppled sheiks of Saudi Arabia set the stage for a dangerous nuclear war between Asia and America. 350,000 first printing. In the Reagan administration, Clarke was the deputy assistant to the secretary of state for intelligence and served as the assistant secretary of state for politico-military affairs in the first Bush administration. He served for eight years as a special assistant to President Clinton and served as national coordinator of security and counter-terrorism for Clinton and for President George W. Bush. With that experience and probably counting on name recognition, Clarke has written his first novel, a geopolitical tale set five years into the future. It deals with a coup that overthrows a number of Saudi Arabian sheiks, the frantic need to procure oil, and the threat of nuclear war by both the U.S and countries in the Middle East. The large cast of characters includes members of British intelligence, the U.S. National Security Agency, the Secret Service, Navy SEALs, and Iranian Revolutionary Guards--an equal number of good guys and bad guys. With a large print-run planned, the publisher is expecting big sales; and librarians can expect high demand. George Cohen Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Richard A. Clarke began his federal service in 1973 in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. In the Reagan administration, he was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence. In the first Bush administration, he was the Assistant Secretary of State for Politico-Military Affairs and then a member of the National Security Council staff. He served for eight years as a special assistant to President Clinton and was National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism for both President Clinton and President George W. Bush. From 2001 to 2003, he was the Special Adviser to the President for Cyberspace Security, and chairman of the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board. He is now chairman of Good Harbor Consulting. Besides Against All Enemies , he is most recently the author of the much-discussed "Ten Years Later," a future history of the war on terror published in The Atlantic Monthly . Some of us have learned to listen when Richard A. Clarke has something to say. As the long-time White House counterterrorism chief, he warned the U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21st Century in 1999 that terrorists were coming. We listened, but when we passed the warning on to President Bush, he did not. Now Clarke comes with a novel that, even if you swallow only a portion of it, will keep you awake at night. It's basically about turmoil in the Middle East, threatening to lead to World War III between the United States and China involving -- guess what? -- oil. Reading The Scorpion's Gate will require you to contemplate the consequences of the fall of the House of Saud, indigenous democracy on the Arabian Peninsula in a successor government of moderate Islamists, the profound fissure between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, possible Chinese military intervention in the Middle East, America's disastrous energy policy, the costs of the Iraq War, the simple-minded U.S. understanding of the Middle East, and the political complexities of that region. The book's plot defies easy summary. A revolution in Saudi Arabia (now renamed Islamyah) leads the Qods Force -- the covert-action arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard -- to try to destabilize the Persian Gulf, attacking U.S. facilities in the guise of Iraqis, all in the interest of establishing Shiite hegemony in the region. Two Chinese carrier task groups deploy to the Persian Gulf to deliver nuclear warheads to the hard-line Shura Council that is running Islamyah and to secure China's oil supplies. Meanwhile, under the guise of massive military exercises, a corrupt U.S. secretary of defense conspires to usurp command over the military, divert U.S. forces to invade Islamyah and reinstate the Saudis. Against this intricate backdrop, a senior American intelligence analyst named Russell "Rusty" MacIntyre makes contact with high-level dissident officials from Islamyah (former al Qaeda operatives converted to patriotic democrats -- don't ask); British intelligence's station chief in Bahrain, Brian Douglas, survives an assassination attempt and reactivates a source in the Iranian Foreign Ministry; and New York Journal reporter Kate Delmarco uncovers Defense Secretary Conrad's corrupt ties to the Saudis (for whom Clarke has little use). Though Graham Greene and John le Carré are under no threat from Clarke, he does demonstrate a flair for action fiction. His almost three-decade background in intelligence and counterterrorism serves him exceptionally well when he narrates a hair-raising Special Ops assault to prevent Qods Forces