Will Staeger Public Enemy

Public Enemy

Will Staeger

Morrow, Jul 2006, $24.95

ISBN: 0060765879

In the Virgin Islands almost retired CIA Agent W. Cooper investigates the smuggling of stolen Mayan gold artifacts that turned ugly leading to numerous deaths during a confrontation. At about the same in Fort Myers, Florida, delivery man Benjamin Achar explodes a bomb in his garage killing himself. Almost immediately over one hundred people in the vicinity of his ground zero die as the explosion releases a virus into the air; America has it first suicide bomber on its soil.

CIA agent Julie Laramie is sent to Fort Myers to investigate the deadly Achar incident and to forge a team to see if he had associates or if any other sleeper cell remains in the area. Laramie asks her former lover Cooper to join her team. He hesitantly agrees though he has doubts about working with her and besides he is still on the stolen Mayan artifacts case.

PUBLIC ENEMY is a strong investigative tale the uses police procedural elements to set up an action-packed antiterrorist thriller. The story line is action-packed from the opening scene and never slows down until the final escapade. However, what makes Will Staeger's tale worth reading is the somewhat dysfunctional relationship between Julie and Cooper, which embellishes the plot by enhancing the non-stop action. Readers will fully enjoy Cooper's second appearance (see PAINKILLER).

Harriet Klausner