Qisas - Book Review

AA Freda’s Qisas, the latest pulse-pounding entry in the award-winning Sam and James series, fuses international espionage with a deeply personal tale of survival. The novel detonates with a brutal terrorist attack on a church in Lubbock, Texas. Vietnam veteran and businessman James Coppi, caught in the chaos, reacts with lethal precision. His quick action saves lives but leaves him scarred—physically and psychologically—setting the book’s urgent, uncompromising tone.

The title, Qisas, invokes the Islamic principle of retribution—“an eye for an eye”—and frames the story’s central conflict. After James’s intervention disrupts their plot, masterminds Faakhir and Mafrouz retaliate by targeting the Coppi family. What follows is a globe-spanning manhunt that propels the action from Colorado to Milan, where James’s wife, Sam, is abducted.

James’s mission to rescue Sam reads like a tactical manual for suspense. Joined by South African mercenaries and backed by Israeli military expertise, he stages a high-risk prisoner exchange on a Lebanese bridge. The timing—synchronized to an artillery barrage and culminating in a bridge collapse—keeps the reader on edge. But the danger doesn’t stop there: the chase careens through Peshawar and reaches a shattering climax in Monte Carlo, where Sam’s own violent act of survival against a treacherous “friend,” Prince Firuz, redefines her role in the story. The aftermath—an intense FBI and Interpol inquiry at the Coppi ranch—underscores the political and legal consequences of vigilantism and war.

Qisas excels on multiple levels. Its breakneck pacing is matched by striking tactical realism—artillery timing, covert logistics, and the mechanics of moving vast sums through international subsidiaries feel painstakingly researched. Sam’s arc, from captive to protector, is especially resonant: her transformation adds emotional weight to the novel’s kinetic action. Freda uses family as an anchor, demonstrating how geopolitical violence reverberates through intimate lives.

The book also interrogates larger moral questions. It confronts the “cycle of violence,” showing antagonists motivated by grievances and zealotry while exposing the moral compromises of state power—agencies that sometimes shelter useful killers and abandon ordinary citizens. Rather than offering tidy answers, Qisas lays bare the ambiguities of modern retribution and justice.

In short, Qisas is a hard-edged, morally textured thriller: relentless in pace, credible in tradecraft, and humane in its attention to how war and vengeance shape families. This is Freda at his most accomplished—taut, provocative, and unflinching.

Qisas—AA Freda’s fiercest Sam and James thriller yet—delivers lethal tactics, relentless suspense, and a powerful story of resilience: an adrenaline-fueled ride that asks how far you’ll go to protect the people you love. Pick it up if you like your thrillers smart, fast, and morally charged.