The Horns of Moses: A Novel

David H. Brandin
iUniverse (2007)
ISBN 9780595440863
Reviewed by Nikki Pringle for Reader Views (8/08)


The year is 1973. Aaron Green, a recent college graduate who loved photography, was given a Lecia 35 mm camera by his father David, and money for a trip to Israel by his mother Rebecca. On his twentieth birthday, which was also the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, he visited Solomon’s Quarry in Jerusalem. Aaron was surrounded by an Arab patrol that has just launched an attack on Israel. The troops ignore his pleas, slit his throat, and leave him for dead in a nearby doorway.

Flash forward to 2007. David Green, now in his seventies, is still haunted by his son’s murder more than thirty years before. He calls together a meeting of the Stony Island Gang, a group of his friends from his childhood on Chicago’s South Side. The gang still takes yearly summer trips to locations all around the world, but this winter gathering has left David’s wife suspicious and his friends bewildered. David has something more than skiing or scuba-diving adventures in mind for the group. He is looking for both retribution for Aaron’s murder and a way to make a radical statement to the terrorist organizations plaguing the Middle East. David wants to send dying Jews to the region to act as suicide bombers targeting these organizations, and thereby giving them a taste of their own medicine. His goal with what he has deemed ‘Project Moses’ is to kill one-hundred Arab terrorists and spark a civil war between their many factions.

As the Stony Island Gang struggles with the moral and political implications of his proposal, David is prepared to move forward with or without their assistance. After much reluctance and heated debate, the men agree to proceed with ‘Project Moses,’ named after Michelangelo’s famous statue with the horns that have led to heated debated over the centuries. The consequences in their own lives, as well as to the United States government, Israel, and the likes of Hezbollah, Hamas, Fatah, Mossad and Islamic Jihad are swift, severe, and perhaps more than David is prepared to handle.

“The Horns of Moses” is an in-depth look at one man’s need for revenge in the grandest scale. It delves into what might happen if the tables were turned on the terror cells at work in the Middle East if one of their preferred methods of getting their message across was turned against them. Brandin’s locations, and political and religious history are thoroughly researched and written. The characters are well developed and David’s crusade, if not admirable or understandable after what he has personally lost to the continued strife in Israel and the rest of the region, is believable. There are so many organizations and characters at play that it is at times hard to keep track of who is who and which groups work together or against each other, but I imagine that is much like the confusion in the real world over these issues. “The Horns of Moses” by David H. Brandin is thought-provoking, fast-paced, and leaves the readers with lots to consider. Those who are fans of the history of this war-torn corner of the world, as well as those that enjoy the works of authors like Tom Clancy, are in for a treat.

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