“I wish I were James Bond, but I’m just a messenger,” says Sean Cross, the hero of Representative “Vale of Tears,”Peter T. King’s barely veiled 2004 thriller about a congressman who must thwart a planned “dirty bomb” attack by Qaeda operatives working in Brooklyn and on Long Island.

Even before the plot of the novel unfolds, it is a tense time for Congressman Cross, Mr. King’s alter ego. He has been assigned a police escort “ever since he had begun receiving vague phone and mail threats from self-proclaimed Islamic terrorists.” Then a series of explosions rock Long Island and Brooklyn, and Congressman Cross is forced to help “connect the dots” to prevent an even bigger attack.

As Mr. King takes the spotlight this week with his hearings on the radicalization of American Muslims, “Vale of Tears” shows he has long been considering the dangers posed by radical Muslims, as well as what role a mere congressman can play in protecting his country.


And in a wrinkle that anticipates many of the questions that he is facing about his past support for the Irish Republican Army, his thriller directly engages that connection: the scheme being exposed by Congressman Cross involves rogue elements of the I.R.A. assisting Qaeda operatives — an alliance sealed by Fiona Larkin, a striking redhead who once seemed committed to the I.R.A.’s peaceful transition to electoral politics, and Abdul Bajal, a Qaeda leader living in Dublin.
Besides this wayward lass, the alliance is driven by dead-enders who are angry that the I.R.A. has given up the fight, and who somehow believe that the car bombs they build for Al Qaeda will send a message to the hated British.
Congressman Cross (might rejected names have included Congressman Shepherd, Congressman Fisher or Congressman King O’Kings?) doesn’t get a chance to do much cloak-and-dagger work — rather, he persuades reluctant witnesses to spill the beans. He chastises Dr. Abdul Ahmed, head of a Long Island Muslim group, for failing to fully identify with America’s interests: “As I said, you can talk about the Middle East some other time. Today your brothers and sisters are the innocent Americans who were killed and injured …”
Dr. Ahmed responds: “With all respect, Congressman, I distinctly recall all the speeches you gave about the way the British were persecuting the Irish in Northern Ireland.”

Retorts the congressman: “With all respect to you, Doctor, if the I.R.A. had ever attacked Americans, I would have disowned them in a second — and I would have waited a long time before I started talking about what was going on in Northern Ireland.”
Soon Mr. Cross is sharing what he knows with the New York Police Department antiterrorism expert, who encourages him: “Keep doing what you’re doing. All I’d be worried about is some congressman or senator who thinks he’s Dick Tracy or James Bond or tries to get cheap headlines by holding Sunday news conferences announcing some big ‘disclosure.’ ”

Using his contacts from the old I.R.A. days, including a comely assassin now trying to encourage business to locate in Ireland, Congressman Cross must extract the details. Here he is, talking to a reformed I.R.A. member who escaped unfair prosecution by sneaking into the country under false papers: “Pete, I can understand where you’re coming from. A lot of us wanted to look the other way when it was the I.R.A. against the Brits. Whether that was right or wrong, the fact is — as you just said — ‘that [stuff] is all in the past.’ ”
That said, Mr. Cross’s  tolerance for Muslims is not quite the same. Talking with a security-expert friend, the congressman asks for the differences to be explained to him: “What can you tell me about the actual terrorists — the Islamists?”
“The Muslim community is the most radical and terrorist of any immigrant group that has ever come to this country,” the expert says. “And this has been going on for the past 10 to 15 years. … Most of the micks over here who supported the I.R.A. considered themselves 100 percent pro-American, and believe me these Muslims don’t.”
“Sept. 11 proved that,” the congressman replies.
When a young Muslim, Omar, gives Sean Cross information about suspicious activities, the congressman learns details of the next plot and promises to get protection for Omar, and to help with immigration issues.
“When I talk to the F.B.I. and the N.Y.P.D., which I’ll do almost immediately, I’ll urge them to provide Omar with protection. … In no event, though, should you go back to your apartment.”
King’s hero certainly knows his place. At the climax of the story, he gets a call from the antiterrorism bunker about SWAT teams storming this warehouse, and others who are closely monitoring the car bomb makers, and the congressman sheepishly asks, “Do you want me in there?”
“That’s why I called,” comes the response.
On the final page, when you think tragedy has been averted, it is the congressman who gets the call to say the ringleaders have gotten away — off to Yemen.