Shock And Awe (not to be confused with the trope, which completely doesn't apply) is a technothriller novel by David Isaak.
Carla Smukowski has seen better days. A former member of a US Army special forces Amazon Brigade, her career was ended when she lashed out at Arabs celebrating 9/11, in which her brother died. Now bumming through life, never having forgiven nor forgotten, she cautiously accepts when mysterious billionaire Rex Atwater offers her the resources to lend a hand to The War on Terror.
Boyce Hammond is a FBI Agent. He has been undercover with a Right Wing Militia so long he is not sure where his loyalties lie. His path crosses with Carla's when Rex dragoons his group for the next stage of his plan - hijack a transport carrying fissile material to build a dirty bomb and use it against Mecca.
As they work to build the militia into something resembling a coherent squad that can carry out the operation, Carla starts to have doubts, while Rex seems to not have been entirely on the level.
This novel contains examples of the following:
- Cruel and Unusual Death: One of the militiamen gets knocked off the ship carrying the fissile material while wearing a lead-lined radiation-proof suit and is implied to have drowned.
- Debate and Switch: Carla spends some time wondering if using a dirty bomb on Mecca is really a fair method of retaliation for all the terrorist attacks carried out by extremist Muslims. Before she can decide for herself whether or not to actually use the weapon, it gets stolen by another bunch of terrorists Rex is secretly in league with and she and Boyce end up having to stop them from using it on the US.
- If I Wanted You Dead...: Rex claims that the West should have used this as a rebuttal to the Arab press and their claims about deliberately targetting civilians.
- It's Personal: Carla hates Arabs because her brother was killed in 9/11.
