Wild Fire (Mass Market Paperback)

by Nelson DeMille (Author)
Key Phrases: elf transmitter, didrit reply, suitcase nukes, Bain Madox, Custer Hill Club, Harry Muller (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. 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 © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
John Corey, the ex-NYPD detective who now works on a government anti-terrorism task force, returns in this exciting and uncomfortably realistic thriller. Bain Madox, a brilliant and probably insane villain, has hatched a fiendishly clever plot to force the U.S. to launch an all-out nuclear attack against the entire Islamic world. It's up to Corey, with the help of his FBI agent wife, to stop Madox before he can detonate nuclear weapons on American soil. Set in 2002, barely a year after 9/11, the novel presents a what-if scenario that's so plausible we have to remind ourselves that DeMille is making the whole thing up. Or is he? As usual, DeMille appears to have done a ton of research; what sets his thrillers apart from those of some of his competitors is the way he seamlessly incorporates real technology and real government organizations into his stories. It really is tough to tell what parts of his novels are real and what are the products of his imagination. And although Operation Wild Fire, the American nuclear retaliatory strategy that Madox hopes to jump-start, is fictional, DeMille makes us believe that something very like it could and possibly does exist. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 720 pages
• Publisher: Vision (November 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446617776
• ISBN-13: 978-0446617772
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (306 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #82,448 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Truly a mixed bag... some so good, some... not so much., January 23, 2007

By	M. Strong (Milwaukee, WI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Wild Fire (Hardcover)

Well, this one really has to go into the category of "what might have been." Nelson DeMille starts off so strongly with a well-researched, creative and plausible evil plot that really makes you think about where reality leaves off and fiction begins. As one review states, you get the bulk of the bad guys' plans related to you through the dialog of a long meeting; it does get a bit tedious and that's where things begin to go amiss.

As the reader, you know about 95% of the evil plot about 20% of the way into the book. For the remaining 80% of the book you follow along with DeMille's hero, John Corey, who is implausibly antagonistic to nearly everyone he meets. The character is written to be a street-hardened wiseguy who has seen too much to suffer anyone (fool or otherwise) gladly, but he just comes across as unrealistic and rather annoying. The guy isn't even all right around his wife/boss/partner who wouldn't stay with a guy like this for ten minutes.

To further the problem, you already know the evil plot, so you are forced to endure several hundred pages of the aforementioned Mr. Corey renting cars, booking hotel rooms and hassling service personnel. I'm really not kidding... that makes up the vast majority of this book. Corey also has the classic "hero who has a problem with authority" thing going on steroids. He'd be fired forty six times in real life for doing what he does in this book.

Anyhow, great idea gone to waste. Still worth reading if you like well thought out "what if" scenarios, but if bad writing and implausible characters bother you much you may want to stay away from this one.

115 of 137 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great read by DeMille, November 7, 2006

By	Michael Bird (Yorba Linda, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Wild Fire (Hardcover)

Demille picks up where he left off in Night Fall with Corey still on the job working to stop terrorism against America. The book is fictional, of course, however Demille likes to include real agencies (or close to real agencies) in his work along with real laws, tactics, newspaper headlines and he also includes his biting commentary on how and where the government really screws up in its defense of the country.

Now this book deals with the threat of Islamic terrorism, however unlike Night Fall in which we don't ever find out who exactly the villain was (it may really have been an accident) or The Lion's Game in which the villain was a Libyan terrorist; this work throws us a curve ball with the choice of villain. The irony is strong when the bad guy's plan has a little bit of common sense to it.

Unlike some of the editorial reviews I've seen I don't want to present any spoilers here; so it's a little difficult to argue the pro's and con's of the fictional governmental program called Wild Fire as it's presented in the book. In one of his brief comments on the book, DeMille notes that the idea for Wild Fire is based upon information that can be considered anything from fact to pure fiction, however he believes something similar does exist and if not it should. I agree with him that it should, I'm doubtful, from what I've witnessed that it does.

Of course I strongly recommend DeMille, he's become one of my favorite authors, however I'd like to mention that there are two different kinds of DeMille books. This one is an action thriller, law enforcement based, it reads much like a mystery thriller and presents some interesting and thought provoking things about terrorism and how to deal with stopping it. The other type of DeMille book is powerful literature, The Gold Coast and Word of Honor for instance. Not all readers will necessarily find themselves liking both types of book the same, however they are all well written and enjoyable to read.

If you're new to DeMille and haven't yet read any of Detective John Corey stories, you may want to start earlier and then finish up with this latest book, however it's not really necessarily as each book does stand alone well. If you're not into action thriller books or don't think the law enforcement angle is something you really are hot to read, yet you've heard great things about DeMille try picking up The Gold Coast, it is really one of the best pieces of modern literature I've read yet and perhaps you'll become a fan of the more genre based works.

In any case, if you're a fan of DeMille you'll no doubt get this latest book and enjoy it, if you're not yet a fan, I give a strong recommendation to this author's work.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Wild About Wild Fire, June 21, 2007

By	George Webster, Ph.D., (Orlando, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wild Fire (Hardcover)

Nelson DeMille's The Lion's Game is one of the best thrillers ever written, but Wild Fire lags far behind. If you are a DeMille fan, this may be exactly the thing you like, but it put me to sleep. First, there is no plot. From the book's dust jacket and early pages, you know that a wealthy oil man wants to wipe out the people of the Middle East by exploding black-market, nuclear bombs in two American cities, triggering a massive nuclear response onto the Middle East from the United States (Project Wild Fire). We know that it won't happen, so we already know that someone will stop it. Second, the book has endless conversation that drags on forever. Third, we again have Detective John Corey and FBI Agent Kate Mayfield investigating the case, but this is not the capable John Corey that we saw in The Lion's Game. This John Corey is a wisecracking buffoon, and an entire book of his one-liners becomes really tiresome. The story's end is exciting and ties up loose ends nicely. This is the first time that I did not like a DeMille book, but I suspect that his next will create the usual excitement.