Jim Birakos discusses his recent book, Unlucky Tuesday: Will Civilization Die on a Tuesday?

On a tragic Tuesday, Al-Qaeda terrorists plowed into the Twin Towers. On a shameful Tuesday, Ottoman hordes defiled God’s majestic cathedral, Hagia Sophia, and massacred the Byzantine faithful. But Tuesday in Greek means “three.” And a thrice-occurring tragedy is believed inevitable. As Ottoman cannons devastated Constantinople, the Western world believed civilization had died. But an inspired bishop, the Keeper of the True Cross, was determined to recreate civilization by following God’s example: he built a small Ark to be discovered in better times. It carried a precious holy relic to sustain the faith, classical books and maps to safeguard values that shaped modern thought, and history’s best kept military secret to protect it all—Greek Fire, the amazing napalm bomb of the Middle Ages. A Los Angeles professor, after years of combing libraries and monasteries, finally located the new Ark entombed in the wall of a cave in Mani, Greece’s southernmost tip. Terrorists who had silently tracked the search, usurped the formula. Greek Fire, with its ferocious, unquenchable sticky flames, infuriated by water, could now turn a large metropolis into an irrepressible fireball. Plotting a vicious attack on an unwary American city had begun. More attacks would follow. Will civilization expire on an ominous Tuesday?

Published author of books, articles, and short stories, this is Jim Birakos’ first book-length novel. A leading figure on the environment, the Los Angeles Times wrote about him, “When you speak of smog in Los Angeles the operative name is Birakos.” With a doctoral degree in Environmental Science, Jim Birakos has advised almost thirty nations and has taught in U.S. and international universities.