A Briefcase, Two Pies and a Penthouse

- Blurb -

A savagely satirical new novel by Wellingtonian author Brannavan Gnanalingam asks how New Zealand security agencies would respond when they really do think they have an Islamic terrorist to fear. 'Have we set up a surveillance society in which it's better to pretend we've got things right no matter what, than it is to acknowledge when we've gone too far? We have given up a lot of our civil liberties in the name of protecting ourselves from so-called Islamic terrorism, but who will police the police? In the words of Homer Simpson, do we simply shrug and say "I dunno, the coastguard?"' says Gnanalingam. Rachel McManus has just started at the New Zealand Alarm and Response Ministry. One of the few females working there, she is forced to traverse the peculiarities of Wellington bureaucracy, lascivious colleagues, and decades of sedimented hierarchy. She has the chance to prove herself by investigating a suspected terrorist, who they fear is radicalising impressionable youth and may carry out an attack himself on the nation's capital