My father was in the Army during my childhood. He retired as a Lt. Colonel and spent 22 years defending this country. I have a strong patriotic leaning and support our troops anytime they are deployed. I cannot support Peccant Luther and A Tale Told By A Sleeper by James Mintz even though it was written in response to the events on September 11. It is a collection of random, uncollected thoughts tied together with hate and bigotry. The blatant racism and overall intolerance of every character in this book was pointless and disgusting.

If there was a greater theme in this book, I missed it. If there was a point to writing this type of garbage, I missed it. If there was a moral to this story, I missed it. I would strongly advise against anyone reading this book.

The first section of this book tells the story of a terrorist agent / English professor whose simple plan to detonate nuclear weapons with the aid of cellphone technology fails, and how the assassination of his daughter as revenge for his failure drives him to reveal his secret after the slaying of the man who got his daughter pregnant, and his own suicide.

The remaining two thirds of the book is the failed agent's story in the form of a masterful work of fiction, with the addition of pre-suicide notes. This is set up as an assemblage of paperwork discovered by the campus police officer who had been investigating the killing of the agent's daughter and the subsequent killing and suicide, and the college's English Department.

The quality of prose in this section was highly reminiscent of Alfred Bester's - Golem 100, Iain M Banks' - Use of Weapons, and Nicholson Baker's - The Fermata. So I would be keen to read more of James W. Mintz's work, when it becomes available, since writing of this quality is all too rare.