Author James Houston Turner Fuses Scholarship With Fiction In Novel The Identity Factor

PRLog (Press Release) - Jun 13, 2007 -
Los Angeles, CA (June 15, 2007)— Acclaimed  novelist, James Houston Turner is near completion on another brilliantly suspenseful story to follow in the footsteps of his commended espionage thriller, The Second Thirteen (JB Books, Australia). The new novel, The Identity Factor is set to be launched in January 2008, during the prestigious Australia Week “G’day LA” festivities in Los Angeles, which has previously honored Australian actors Russell Crowe and Naomi Watts, and the late Steve Irwin.

Graciously compared to the late Robert Ludlum by readers and described as “Ludlumesque” by The Dallas Morning News-- Turner writes much of The Identity Factor in staccato real time. After a picturesque 1919 discovery of the tablet, we fast-forward to this morning’s headline news: the phantom terrorist, Abu Nazer, is on the loose and the CIA tries to trap him. Things go wrong, lives are lost, and the CIA looks like fools. Suddenly, the Ishmael tablet resurfaces, scrambling the CIA into overdrive when they learn Abu Nazer has the tablet in his sights. It is here that we meet headstrong rookie profiler, Zoë Gustaves, who tries to unravel a series of tightly knotted mysteries associated with the tablet. But she finds unexpected antagonism from – and attraction to – Texas journalist, Rutherford Tyler, who is hot on the scent of a story. Or is he? For Zoë soon discovers that people around her – including those closest – are not who they seem.

Turner believes powerful fiction often ventures where political and religious leaders fear to tread. “That’s because we’re not afraid to tread on political and religious leaders,” says Turner. “To challenge attitudes, to expose whitewashed abuses of power, to say what needs to be said in the context of an entertaining, well-crafted story is not an easy tightrope to walk.”

The tightrope Turner has chosen to walk frames a powerful and timely “what if” scenario around the discovery of an ancient tablet written by the patriarch, Ishmael. Duplicating the seventh section of Genesis, the tablet makes a stunning declaration about the ownership of Palestine, which few have rightly understood, much less taken seriously. Turner actually does so and in fact, does so with authority, holding a Bachelor’s Degree in world religions from Baker University and a Master’s Degree in history from the University of Houston. His credits also include his work as a journalist in Los Angeles, and as a courier behind the old Iron Curtain.

“In spite of current tensions in the Middle East, I strongly believe there is hope,” Turner says, referring to the pre-1967 days, when Muslims and Jews shared the land and lived in supportive tolerance of one another. That recurring attitude is again reflected in his third novel, research for which put him in contact with the Egyptian and Israeli embassies, as well as individual Muslims and Jews.

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