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Wild Fire

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Overview

This work of fiction is based on a rumor, repeated on the Internet, about a government plan very much like the one I call Wild Fire. Hopefully, the story I'm about to tell will play out only in these pages..."
--Nelson DeMille

Welcome to the Custer Hill Club-a men's club set in an 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 relax with old friends. But one fall weekend, the club's Executive Board gathers to talk about 9/11-and finalize a retaliation plan, known only by its code name:

WILD FIRE
That same weekend, a member of the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force is found dead. Soon it's up to Detective John Corey and his wife, FBI Agent Kate Mayfield, to unravel a plot that starts with the Custer Hill Club and ends with American cities locked in the crosshairs of a nuclear device. Only Corey and Mayfield can stop the button from being pushed, and global chaos from being unleashed...

More chilling than yesterday's headlines and as prophetic as tomorrow's, WILD FIRE will challenge you to question everything you thought you knew about your leaders and your country while thrilling you with suspense that builds with every page.

Editorial Reviews

Set in October 2002, bestseller DeMille's can't-put-it-down fourth thriller to feature ex-NYPD detective John Corey (after 2004's Night Fall) involves an American right-wing plot to suitcase-nuke two U.S. cities. The idea is to provoke an existing government plan called Wild Fire that automatically responds to nuclear terrorism in the homeland with a nuclear attack that will wipe out most of the Middle East. That such a plan probably exists, according to an opening author's note, heightens the tension. Corey and his FBI agent wife, Kate Mayfield, set off to find antiterrorist agent Harry Muller, who has disappeared after being assigned surveillance duties at the Custer Hill Club, a rich man's hunting lodge in upstate New York. John and Kate are a wisecracking, affectionate, deadly duo, with a new resolve born in the tragedy of the World Trade Center bombing. This tour de force of relentless narrative power neither stops nor slows for twists or turns, but charges straight ahead in the face of danger. (Nov.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of Nelson DeMille

Nelson Richard DeMille was born in New York City on August 23, 1943 to Huron and Antonia (Panzera) DeMille. He moved as a child with his family to Long Island. In high school, he played football and ran track. DeMille spent three years at Hofstra University, then joined the Army and attended Officer Candidate School. He was a First Lieutenant in the United States Army (1966-69) and saw action as an infantry platoon leader with the First Cavalry Division in Vietnam. He was decorated with the Air Medal, Bronze Star, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. DeMille returned to the States and went back to Hofstra University where he received his degree in Political Science and History. He has three children, Lauren, Alexander, and James, and still lives on Long Island. DeMille's earlier books were NYPD detective novels. His first major novel was By the Rivers of Babylon, published in 1978 and still in print, as are all his succeeding novels. He is a member of The Authors Guild, the Mystery Writers of America, and American Mensa. He holds three honorary doctorates: Doctor of Humane Letters from Hofstra University, Doctor of Literature from Long Island University, and Doctor of Humane Letters from Dowling College. Nelson DeMille is the author of By the Rivers of Babylon, Cathedral, The Talbot Odyssey, Word of Honor, The Charm School, The Gold Coast, The General's Daughter, Spencerville, Plum Island, The Lion's Game, Up Country, Night Fall, and Wild Fire. He also co-authored Mayday with Thomas Block and has contributed short stories, book reviews, and articles to magazines and newspapers. His newest book, THE GATE HOUSE, is the much-awaited follow-up to his beloved novel The Gold Coast and will be released in October 2008.

Customer Reviews

  • 5 stars out of 5Great Suspense with Humor

    Posted May 29, 2009 by John Markee, Bloomfield Hills, MI

    This was my first Nelson DeMille book and it was hard to put down. Loved the way he added humor to difficult and suspenseful situations... Nicely done. Can't wait to read more from this author...

Additional Info

Imprint

Hachette Book Group USA

Filesize

1.35 MB

Number of Pages

720

eBook ISBN

9780759519800

Excerpt from: Wild Fire by Nelson DeMille

CHAPTER ONE

I'm John Corey, former NYPD homicide detective, wounded in the line of duty, retired on three-quarter disability (which is just a number for pay purposes; about 98 percent of me still functions), and now working as a special contract agent for the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force.
The guy in the cubicle facing me, Harry Muller, asked, "You ever hear of the Custer Hill Club?"
"No. Why?" "That's where I'm going this weekend." "Have a good time," I said.
"They're a bunch of rich, right-wing loonies who have this hunting lodge upstate."
"Don't bring me any venison, Harry. No dead birds, either." I got up from my desk and walked to the coffee bar. On the wall above the coffee urns were Justice Department Wanted Posters, featuring mostly Muslim gentlemen, including the number one scumbag, Osama bin Laden.
Also included in the nearly two dozen posters was a Libyan named Asad Khalil, a.k.a. The Lion. I didn't need to memorize this man's photo; I knew his face as well as my own, though I'd never formally met him.
My brief association with Mr. Khalil occurred about two years ago when I was stalking him, and as it turned out, he was stalking me. He escaped, and I got away with a grazing wound; and, as the Arabs would probably say, "It is destined that we meet again to settle our fates." I look forward to that.
I drained the dregs of the coffee into a Styrofoam cup and scanned a copy of the New York Times lying on the counter. The headline for today, Friday, October 11, 2002, read: CONGRESS AUTHORIZES BUSH TO USE FORCE AGAINST IRAQ , CREATING A BROAD MANDATE.
A subheading read: U.S. Has a Plan to Occupy Iraq, Officials Report. It appeared that war was a foregone conclusion, and so was the victory. Therefore, it was a good idea to have an occupation plan. I wondered if anyone in Iraq knew about this.
I took my coffee back to my desk, turned on my computer, and read through some internal memos. We are now a mostly paperless organization, and I actually miss initialing memos. I had an urge to initial my computer screen with a grease pencil, but I settled for the electronic equivalent. If I ran this organization, all memos would be on an Etch A Sketch.
I glanced at my watch. It was 4:30 P.M., and my colleagues on the 26th floor of 26 Federal Plaza were dwindling fast. My colleagues, I should explain, are, like me, members of the Anti-Terrorist Task Force, a four-letter agency (ATTF) in a world of three-letter agencies.
This is the post-9/11 world, so weekends are, in theory, just another two workdays for everyone. In reality, the honored tradition of Federal Friday-meaning cutting out early-has not changed much, so the NYPD, who are part of the Task Force, and who are used to lousy hours anyway, man the fort on weekends and holidays.
Harry Muller asked me, "What are you doing this weekend?" This was the start of the Columbus Day three-day weekend, but as luck would have it, I was scheduled to work on Monday. I replied, "I was going to march in the Columbus Day Parade, but I'm working Monday."
"Yeah? You were going to march?" "No, but that's what I told Captain Paresi." I added, "I told him my mother was Italian, and I was going to push her wheelchair in the parade."
Harry laughed and asked, "Did he buy that?" "No. But he offered to push her wheelchair." "I thought your parents were in Florida." "They are."
"And your mother's Irish." "She is. Now I have to find an Italian mother for Paresi to push up Columbus Avenue."
Harry laughed again and went back to his computer. Harry Muller, like most of the NYPD in the Mideast Section of the Task Force, does stakeouts and surveillance of Persons of Interest, which, in politically correct speak, means the Muslim community, but I do mostly interviewing and recruiting of informants.