Wild Fire by Nelson DeMille

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Nelson DeMille comes a suspenseful new novel featuring Detective John Corey and an all-too-plausible conspiracy to detonate a nuclear bomb in two major American cities. Welcome to the Custer Hill Club-an informal men's club set in a luxurious Adirondack hunting lodge whose members include some of America's most powerful business leaders, military men, and government officials. Ostensibly, the club is a place to gather with old friends, hunt, eat, drink, and talk off-the-record about war, life, death, sex and politics. But one Fall weekend, the Executive Board of the Custer Hill Club gathers to talk about the tragedy of 9/11 and what America must do to retaliate. Their plan is finalized and set into motion. That same weekend, a member of the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force is reported missing. His body is soon discovered in the woods near the Custer Hill Club's game reserve. The death appears to be a hunting accident, and that's how the local police first report it, but Detective John Corey has his doubts. As he digs deeper, he begins to unravel a plot involving the Custer Hill Club, a top-secret plan known only by its code name: Wild Fire. Racing against the clock, Detective Corey and his wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield, find they are the only people in a position to stop the button from being pushed and chaos from being unleashed. Editorial Reviews Excitement bristles in this unconventional terrorism thriller. The enemy that ex-NYPD detective John Corey must confront isn't an Islamic jihadist; it's a new-millennium Dr. Strangelove plotting to unleash all-out war against the Middle East by detonating a powerful nuke on American soil. With this nihilistic gambit threatening the whole world, Corey must work at triple speed to defuse it. Terrifyingly plausible; nonstop action. - New York City police detective- turned-terrorist hunter John Corey and his FBI agent wife, Kate, head to the Adirondacks to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and, not coincidentally, to stop a right-wing madman from nuking two major American cities and starting World War III. In previous adventures, Corey has been a welcome reminder of the wise-cracking hard-boiled heroes of yore. Here he dances close enough to the edge of self-parody that a narrator unfamiliar with the earlier novels might have been tempted to employ the kind of insouciant smart-aleck approach that would have turned the character into a cartoon figure and flatlined the book's suspense. As Brick states in a 20-minute chat with the author, he's been a longtime DeMille fan and past narrator of two Corey adventures. Brick sees past the character's wisecracks, tempering his brags and brays with a humanizing hint of self-doubt, suggesting that purpose and simmering anger lurk beneath the glib nonsense. He's equally adept at catching the villain's upper class arrogance and Kate's controlled, no-nonsense approach to life. He can switch attitudes and voices in a split second. Brick turns the talky book into an entertaining and effective full-cast comedy-drama. Simultaneous release with the Warner hardcover (Reviews, Sept. 11) (Nov.)Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information - Publishers Weekly This is the exciting sequel to DeMille's hugely successful Night Fall and is his fourth novel to feature the irrepressible and irreverent retired New York Police Department cop John Corey (Plum Island and The Lion's Game were the others). It's been a year since 9/11 and Corey is still searching for terrorists. The United States is contemplating invading Iraq and a right-wing fanatic wants to start a nuclear war against Islam by nuking two American cities. Very rich and very crazy former army officer Bain Madox heads an organization of high-ranking government officials, and they have four suitcase nukes. Obviously, it is up to Corey and his FBI agent wife, Kate Mayfield, to stop the mayhem. Wild Fire is the name of a government program guaranteeing an automatic and massive nuclear response in case we are attacked by atomic weapons. This book is fast-paced and thrilling, and if the plot may seem implausible and over the top, a check of recent headlines is in order. An excellent read for a multitude of reasons. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 7/06.] Robert Conroy, Warren, MI Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information. - Library Journal Number 14 (Up Country, 2002, etc.) from the master of the parboiled potboiler, in which an intrepid cop single-handedly staves off Armageddon. Granted, he gets a bit of help from the little woman. John Corey, ex-NYPD detective, currently employed as part of a crack ad-hoc group called the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force, is married to his boss, gorgeous Kate Mayfield, an FBI agent. Boss she may be, but Kate recognizes star quality when she sees it, and defers to it becomingly, as in Corey's world good little women are wont to do. Her faith in him is about to be tested, however. A colleague is murdered-one of those homicides made to look like an accident that seldom for a minute fools the savvy protagonists in the DeMille stable. Having smelled a rat, Corey goes after him like a starved cat, irritating an array of his by-the-book bosses. But this indeed is a rat to be reckoned with-a megalomaniac with a secret agenda aimed at saving the planet by permanently rearranging its population. And he has allies, people whose comfort in the corridors of power might be counted on to cause a certain discomfort among their adversaries. Not in Corey, however. His creed says it all: At the end, you carry the gun and the shield out into the field, for the sole purpose of confronting the bad guys. So, never mind the power, the fat wallets, the four suitcase-sized nuclear bombs and the scary conspiracy-Corey's plugged in and ready to confront. Americans can now rest easy. Until the next time. Too long, too repetitive, too many one-liners that don't quite work, but Corey's hard-nosed way with a bad guy (homegrown as well as foreign) may resonate even with the skeptical. Agent: Nicholas Ellison/SanfordJ. Greenburger Associates - Kirkus Reviews In their fourth outing together, the husband-and-wife antiterrorism team of John Corey and Kate Mayfield must foil a plot to provoke our government into launching a massive nuclear attack on the Muslim world. Golden Voice Scott Brick proves himself a superb match for bestselling suspense writer Nelson DeMille. With his trademark tones of irony, sarcasm, and self-confidence, Brick brings to life the wisecracking and independent Corey in ways that will make the listener laugh even as the tension builds. Brick's quiet and level tones for the more even-tempered Mayfield make it seem as though there are two narrators at work. The fact that DeMille has chosen the first person to tell the story is another reason this makes a fine production. S.K. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine - APR/MAY 07 - AudioFile