Fearful Master by Arthur Lawrence is a thought-provoking, very relevant and frightening political thriller. Jason Currie, a Canadian-born intelligence analyst of Lebanese descent, is transferred to the U.S. to work for SECOR, the more powerful and far-reaching replacement to U.S. Homeland Security. However, once Jason arrives in L.A., he is detained because his surname was once Kouri (before his father had anglicized the family surname years earlier) and because he had recently gone back to Egypt to visit an aunt and uncle. Before he can gather his wits about him, Jason and another detainee, a Muslim stonemason, are transported to a remote camp where both are inducted into life as political detainees. There they will be assessed for several weeks so that their risk factor can be determined before their fate is decided. Jason, who is Christian, is more or less shunned by the other detainees who are all Muslim, but he’s thankfully rescued the next day by General Hawk, the American general Jason was originally to report to upon his arrival in the U.S. While hardly enamored by what he’s seen of Jason, Hawk agrees to let him stay and so begins his somewhat unusual relationship with the American general. As if things weren’t already difficult enough, Jason becomes even more unsettled when he realizes that his childhood friend, Bill, who now lives in California, has changed in ways that Jason finds disturbing. However, this is merely the beginning of Jason’s initiation into the hard line security policies the U.S. has imposed. He quickly learns that things are about to get a whole lot worse.

Arthur Lawrence spins a realistic, frightening, and while somewhat extreme tale in Fearful Master. The prose is tight and the suspense palpable in its portrayal of the impact extreme security policies can have on certain groups of individuals. It also brings home the message that we are all powerless against a master – in this case, the ‘master’ being the U.S. government. The book is somewhat reminiscent of another period in American history when fear and paranoia was allowed to fester and run rampant within the U.S. government, resulting in the coercion, mistreatment and removal of the most basic rights of immigrant Germans, Japanese and Italians and their spouses and children living in the U.S. in the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor and in the wake of America’s involvement in the Second World War. Some had been living in the U.S. for most of their adult lives and many were first generation Americans but that didn’t matter to the U.S. government as they were torn from their families, herded like livestock onto buses and trains, and taken to internment camps as prisoners of the U.S. government until the war ended. The foundations of fear and paranoia in Fearful Master are the same. This is not to say that there should not be ever-present diligence on the part of every government. However, that diligence must be tempered with common sense, otherwise the premise of Fearful Master may yet become a less-than-palatable reality for us all.

In an excellent work of suspense and thrills by debut fiction novelist Arthur Lawrence, Fearful Master is a story that will grab readers from the start and just won't let go. Taking place in the near future, the story follows Canadian intelligence analyst Jason Currie as he joins forces with SECOR, the new iteration of the United State's Homeland Security Agency. The US is at war with many Middle Eastern countries and Jason's skill in translating Arabic is in high demand. Ending up in a detention camp filled with Muslims, mostly American citizens, Jason is kept busy interpreting. The story line follows Jason through many adventures, including with a relationship with his former neighbor's sister, an arrest and torture, and an eventual escape to attempt to do what is right, not only for his own country and the citizens of the United States, but also for the world.

I had given up biting my finger nails several months ago, but reading Fearful Master made me sorely tempted to do so again. Author Arthur Lawrence's work gripped me right away, both for its fast and exciting pace as well as the scary feeling that his story may be more realistic and likely than any of us would like to believe. The author has done a great job in creating well-drawn and believable characters, understandable yet complex plot lines and scenes that appear to be drawn from life. Any reader that enjoys an exciting work of fiction with strong political undertones should definitely pick up Fearful Master as soon as possible. I am pleased to recommend this book, and look forward to reading more from the promising novelist, Arthur Lawrence, as soon as he has another book to offer!

Fearful Master by Arthur Lawrence takes us just a little bit into the future and introduces us to Jason Currie, an intelligence office in Canada. He works as an analyst and is fluent in Arabic due to this. For his hard work he has been moved into SECOR, a more powerful replacement for the US Homeland Security. He is put into a prison camp full of American citizens and Muslims, but is taken out by his superior in SECOR, General Hawk, and sent to work at the LA station. This is when he gets his mission to go to Mexico and and lure back his former neighbor Bil's wayward sister. This is only the first step in a wild adventure of assignments for Jason.

If you want a book that is very relevant for today's age and is full of adventure and suspense, this is the book for you. Author Arthur Lawrence has managed to create a complex web of characters and situations that keep you turning the pages and on your toes for what is going to happen next. Jason and Miriam are a curious pair of characters that have many layers, as do the other characters. The flow of this book keeps up a steady pace with nothing being too fast or too slow, just nice and balanced. If you are looking for a well written, interesting book and love suspense, this is the perfect read.

Arthur Lawrence’s Fearful Master is one of those interesting stories that highlight the conflict between Christian America and Islamic terrorism. Jason Curie is a Canadian intelligence analyst who gets one of the most powerful positions in US intelligence. He soon finds himself caught up in a network of political intrigue and conflict that lands him in a detention camp and sends him racing across countries to free a woman in Guadalajara. Where he thought he could make a difference, he finds himself running for dear life with a mentor who seems as helpless as his pupil. The big question is: Will they escape the dangers that threaten their lives and still save Africa from an impending deadly war?

Fearful Master by Arthur Lawrence is set in a future time and what is most interesting is the author’s ability to make readers relate to his message, his characters, and the landscapes he paints so beautifully with words. This is one of the best social commentaries I have read in a while about the conflict between the US and the Middle East. Lawrence’s characters are interesting and compelling, with human strengths and flaws that will immediately draw the admiration and sympathy of readers. The prose is beautiful and wisely punctuated with interesting dialogues; it is packed with fast-paced action, laced with surprising twists and turns that will make readers want to know what happens next. The integration of diverse cultural settings and ideologies into Fearful Master has made Arthur Lawrence one of my favorite writers. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an action packed novel in the area of politics and ideology.

Skye

Fearful Master would likely be a decent read at any time, but right now – 2015 –the book is downright terrifying. Lawrence presents a dystopian present that we could so easily slip into. It’s a world that could easily evolve into the ones presented in Orwell’s “1984”, Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” or even Atwood’s “A Handmaid’s Tale”. Big Brother surveillance. Suppression of media. Religious fanaticism. The arena scene with Vice President Anita Skye especially reminded me of the public execution in “A Handmaid’s Tale”.
The story follows one character, Jason Currie, and everything unfolds from his perspective, but it is told in the third-person. Jason is neither repulsive nor compelling. He’s imperfect: brilliant at some things (math) and completely inept at others (seeing the big picture). He is hardly a typical hero, as he is primarily motivated by self-interests (rescuing a family-friend-turned-lover), but he also demonstrates an innate morality that would appeal to most readers.
I find the depiction of Canada and Canadians in this novel amusing. Like the protagonist, Canada itself is self-interested and a naive. Lawrence’s Canada still enjoys freedom of the press, freedom of movement and the right to due process, and it hasn’t been overcome by religious fanatics. This Canada ( perhaps a bit too much like the real Canada) is self-interested and understands that it is in its own best interests to play nice with its powerful neighbour.
I’m not sure if Americans could see the portrayal of their own nation as “amusing”, especially since current events like the Syrian Refugee Crisis and Donald Trump’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination seem like they could be coming right out of the novel. This quote from Donald Trump actually describes the America in the book quite well: “We’re going to have to do things that we never did before. And some people are going to be upset about it, but I think that now everybody is feeling that security is going to rule… and certain things will be done that we never thought would happen in this country in terms of information and learning about the enemy. And so we’re going to have to do certain things that were frankly unthinkable a year ago.” (NY Times, 2015/11/21). Lawrence’s America may be “too close for comfort”.
About the story-telling. The book has some natural stopping points that allowed me to put the book down long enough to get a good night’s sleep, but it was also compelling enough to want to pick it up again quickly to see how the story would resolve. I have to confess that despite the back cover’s promise of “twists and turns”, nothing about the plot or the characters really surprised me. That’s not to say that the book wasn’t enjoyable. Aside from a silly “This is not the end of the story. It may only be a beginning,” line on the last page and a few odd sentence structures and tenses (bad editing, perhaps?), I have no complaints. I’ve found myself talking about the book and wanting to share it with friends and family because it is both timely and accessible.