Public Enemy

by Will Staeger

Book Overview

W. Cooper didn't choose the British Virgin Islands as his CIA post because he hoped it would help further his career in espionage--he chose it for an opportunity to "live slow." So Cooper is not entirely pleased when his routine of debauchery is interrupted by a request from the local chief of police asking for Cooper's unique expertise to help him sell what appears to be millions of dollars in gold artifacts his men have seized from a smuggler...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060765879
• ISBN13: 9780060765873
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Spectacular

This has to be the best thriller I have read in years. It is intelligent, witty, and there is an attention to detail that seems to get glossed over all too often. The plot is fresh. The characters are well drawn. The motivations are understandable.

Fun

A fun-filled exciting spy novel. The continuing characters are geat and their interaction makes great reading!

This is a 5-star PLUS suspense!

Staeger has created a plot and characters with more twists than a corkscrew. It will keep the reader turning each page, never putting the book down, until the last page is turned. Benny Achar is a devoted family man who sends his family ahead on vacation. He then loads his SUV with fertilizer, gasoline, and a couple of other things, swallows a vile of deadly virus, and takes out two blocks surrounding his home in a massive explosion. In the next two weeks, over 100 innocent people die. Julie Laramie is loaned by the FBI to the former head of the CIA, Lou Ebbers. She's placed in charge of a Counter Terror cell and charged with finding out who Achar really is--and what else might be going down. She has a blank check to solve the puzzle--but isn't told all the facts. What she does find, though, is that there may be an army of sleepers out there across America, waiting for the signal to blow themselves up, spreading the virus with a Central American origin to millions of innocents. W. Cooper is a semi-retired CIA operative who lives in Tortola, British Virgin Islands (BVI). Cap'n Roy Gillespie, Chief Minister of the Islands and former Chief of Police summons "de spy of da island" and asks for his help. The U.S. Coast Guard chased a 150-foot yacht suspected of carrying drugs bound for the US into BVI territory. A gun battle ensued, two of three people on board were killed, and while no drugs were found, $80 million in gold artifacts from Central America were. Cap'n Roy wants Cooper's help in suitably "disposing" of the artifacts for the good of the island treasury. Within three days five people involved with the artifacts are dead, including Cap'n Roy and the skipper of the yacht. And Cooper has no idea why or who is behind it. Laramie calls on Cooper to use his skills to find the source of the virus. It turns out that the virus and the artifacts are connected--and together they cause Cooper to relive a nightmare of torture and near death that he experienced in the Central American jungle twenty years earlier. Only solving both mysteries and eliminating the people that created both will keep Cooper and Laramie alive. Armchair Interviews says: A 5-star suspense with a great plot and great characters. Staeger also wrote, Painkiller, another suspense novel

Public Enemy

I have to say that I'm putting Will Staeger on the same list as Clive Cussler and James Rollins. This list consists of authors whose books get my priority when published. I love Staeger's writing style. His novels are fast-paced and highly entertaining. Escapist fiction at its finest. Keep up the good work Mr. Staeger. I definitely look forward his next novel, which I hope includes Cooper and company. Highly recommended for fans of Cussler and Rollins.

strong investigative tale

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 that 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