Schrier tells the harrowing tale of his seven months in the prisons of Al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, the Al-Nusra Front. He went to Syria in December 2012 as a freelance photographer, was seized, and eventually escaped. Though there is obviously no way to verify Schrier's account, his story has the air of truth. Nearly everyone he describes--himself included--comes across as a complex mixture, neither all saintly nor all evil. People are peevish, odd, emotional, sometimes cruel, and not always too bright. What he describes fits well with what is known about Al-Nusra: about the backgrounds of its members, about how the group organizes its affairs, and about how it views the world. Schrier has a keen appreciation for Syrian politics, though it is peripheral to his account. The FBI comes across poorly; its personnel were at best incompetent and at worst more interested in concealing their ineptitude than in pursuing terrorists or helping Americans in need. That said, this is a personal account about being imprisoned by cruel terrorists; it is not a book about politics or counterterrorism. Summing Up: Optional. General readers; lower-division undergraduates through faculty. --Patrick Lyell Clawson, Washington Institute for Near East Policy