The story unfolds in Iraq in 2014. ISIS is on a roll. The protagonists are Major Michelle Wilson, age 32, callsign Sparkles, a US fighter pilot, and Karim Hamid, age 21, callsign Black Flag, a US soldier of Iraqi descent, raised in the US and planted inside ISIS by the CIA.

Both commit serious infractions, albeit for reasons readers will applaud, breaking away from their assigned duties. To atone for their dereliction, they find themselves forced to team up on a perilous mission from Baghdad to Mosul—a city already taken by ISIS—posing as an ISIS couple. He's an impulsive risk-taker with little sense of fear, she's a driven, uptight perfectionist. They're sceptical of each other initially, but as they face betrayal and the barbarity of jihad, they learn to value each other and become a team in ways they had never imagined.

While this story displays an authenticity born of diligent research, it's important to note that it is not an indictment of Islam.