Black Sunday represents a thriller in which a hero or heroes battles a villain or villains to save the lives of innocents. In its simplest manifestation, it is the story of psychopathic killers stalking innocent victims, the stuff of many of the films of Alfred Hitchcock, detective novels, and true crime tales.

Its discussion of the technical paraphernalia of international terrorism, meanwhile — plastic explosives, weaponry, and various exotic means of transport — allies this book with the genre of techno-thrillers by writers such as Tom Clancy. Although Harris's next two novels also depend on authentic details, his movement in those works away from international criminal acts to homegrown psychopaths means that this book remains his most political, as well as his most reliant on technology.

In direct opposition to the novel's use of the detective genre, the horrifying subject matter represents the horror genre, which...