The Nuclear Jihadist

By: Douglas Frantz, Catherine Collins

Narrated by: Bob Craig

Major investigative nonfiction on one of the most important stories of our time - the spread of nuclear weapons - written by two award-winning journalists who for years have followed the trail of the world's most notorious arms dealer. The world has entered a second nuclear age.

For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the threat of nuclear annihilation is on the rise. Should such an assault occur, there is a strong likelihood that the trail of devastation will lead back to Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani father of the Islamic bomb and the mastermind behind a vast clandestine enterprise that has sold nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea, and Libya. Khan's loose-knit organization was and still may be a nuclear Wal-Mart, selling weapons blueprints, parts, and the expertise to assemble the works into a do-it-yourself bomb kit.

Amazingly, American authorities could have halted his operation, but they chose instead to watch and wait. Khan proved that the international safeguards the world relied on no longer worked.

Journalists Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins tell this alarming tale of international intrigue through the eyes of the European and American officials who suspected Khan, tracked him, and ultimately shut him down, but only after the nuclear genie was long out of the bottle.

©2007 Catherine Collins; 2007 Douglas Frantz (P)2007 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Thorough research and brisk prose propel a terrifying tale of greed, weaponry and geopolitics." (Kirkus Reviews)

Worth Reading for the Knowledge

This book won't sweep you along with breathless plot or great characterization, but it is worth it for the information contained. If the U.S. is ever nuked by Al Qaeda, you can bet that this book describes the origins of the attack. Those who have read Legacy of Ashes won't be surprised by the willingness of the CIA to cater to the political whims of the moment, and to present a skewed version of the facts, well, outright lie, to please the administration. The narrator, Bob Craig, has an easy-to-listen-to voice, but I was annoyed by the larger than normal number of mispronunciations. He really should know how to pronounce hyperbolic, dais, cadre, Reza Pahlavi, and at least half a dozen more in the first half of the book alone. I realize that not all persons are familiar enough with foreign languages to correctly pronounce names, but it's irritating for a professional narrator to mangle German names so badly.

Pretty Good, but Pretty Slow

The Nuclear Jihadist is informative but lacks any storytelling effort: suspense, climax, anticipation, turmoil, etc, even despite the apocalyptic subject matter. It is also scant on sourcing, which leaves the listener to wonder how much of the recitation is conjecture, much like Colin Powell’s referenced Power Point presentation. I, personally, could have done without the authors’ editorial tripe in the Epilogue that diplomacy conquers extremism, when we Give Peace a Chance, despite the author spending considerable time in the book detailing the failures of the Atoms for Peace initiative!

Regarding the audio, the narrator mispronounces a dozen or so intermediate level words; the chapters/parts don’t correspond to the text throughout the book, and there is a ten second skip/unintended moment of silence midway through the recording.

distractingly bad narration

The book was pretty interesting and I can forgive the occasional dramatic silly music interludes between chapters but the narrator’s pronunciation of many words was laughably bad. Was there no editor/producer to help out here? Some examples:
Saudis = Soddies
Riyadh = Ree-yada
Corroborate = co-wobbuh-wait
Oppenheimer = Oh-pen-heimer
pugnacious = pyoog-nacious (?!)
United Arab Emirates = United Arab Emeritus
Tanzania = tan-zany-uh

At other times the narrator says wrong but visually similar to the correct word in the text making for some ‘what?’ having to rewind and hear it again moments.

It’s fine overall but I found the errors narration jarring.