The Enemy Within

by Larry Bond, Patrick Larkin

Overview

America's largest cities are in flames. Its majestic landmarks are in ruins. Oceans and boundaries offer no protection. It is the first sophisticated, intelligently planned, and utterly ruthless terrorist campaign waged on U.S. soil. As national leaders, armies, and artificial intelligence strive to win the unconventional war, two men—once friends, now adversaries to the death—race to a decisive confrontation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780446516761
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	03/15/1996
Pages:	496
Sales rank:	717,625
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.25(d)

About the Author

Larry Bond (1952) is an American author and game designer. He began his writing career as a collaborator on Tom Clancy's 1986 novel Red Storm Rising, which went on to be one of the bestselling books of the decade. He went on to write a number of bestselling military thrillers including Red Phoenix, Vortex, and Cauldron.

What People are Saying About This

Tom Clancy

The best thriller I've read in years.

Clive Cussler

No writer living can produce the depth of political intrigue like Larry Bond. If you want to read a tale so close to reality it's frightening, read The Enemy Within.

Mary Maitland

Bone-chilling...his experience as a naval officer and warfare analyst provides credibility to a topical novel I was unable to put down.

Editorial Reviews

What would a terrorist siege be like in the United States? Not an isolated incident, but a wide, efficient campaign? Bond's (Cauldon, Warner, 1993) latest novel provides a graphic and plausible answer to this unsettling question. From a modest beginning (the Golden Gate Bridge at rush hour) to grander explosions (a race war in Detroit), Middle East terrorists remain several jumps ahead of FBI special agent Helen Grey and Delta Force's Peter Thorne as well as police, National Guard, and the Pentagon. Bond's expert knowledge of the latest military technology is as fascinating as his portrait of the terrorists. He spins a frightening thriller with a nightmare scenario of easy predation where all targets are soft and the hunters can pick their shots. This thriller will do well in public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/95.]-Ann Donovan, Clearwater P.L., Fl.

Library Journal

Just as Rambo went back to single-handedly win the Vietnam War, here Delta Force commando Peter Thorn--veteran of the Desert One fiasco--returns to Iran to avenge a rancorous defeat. But unlike the thick-skulled, pectoral-flexing Rambo, Thorn wins with his wits, as well as some high-tech help. Beneath the gadgetry, though, this is a story of man against man: Thorn versus the ruthless and strategically clever Iranian General Taleh. Taleh's grand plan is to succeed where Saddam failed and grab Saudi oil fields. The scheme depends on keeping American forces away; Taleh ties them down with a tremendous terrorist offensive in the U.S., using white supremacists disguised as the terrorists. Much of this cliche-ridden, techno-thrilling pulp describes the Bosnian Muslim agents Taleh recruits and the outrages they commit, such as igniting a Chicago race riot by murdering black schoolchildren. Thorn eventually decodes Taleh's communications with the real terrorists. From there, the cavalry takes off for Tehran in a raid planned almost exactly like that old failure at Desert One in 1980--except this time, the helicopters fly right. Bond's skin-crawling vision will attract attention, but don't bet he'll hold it beyond a few weeks after publication.

Gilbert Taylor

The ripsnorting, all-too-plausible latest from bestselling Bond (Cauldron, 1993, etc.) pits a duo of dynamic Americans against a mad Iranian bent on altering the geopolitical balance of power.

When Muslim fundamentalists detonate a gasoline tanker on the Golden Gate Bridge at the height of a morning rush hour, the loss of life shocks Washington into a retaliatory missile raid on Tehran. With the religious rulers and populace of the oil-rich country reeling from this blow, General Amir Taleh seizes complete control of the Defense Ministry with an eye to restoring the Islamic republic's lost glory. In aid of his vaultingly ambitious plan to annex Saudi Arabia by force of arms, he attempts to neutralize the US by unleashing on it US small bands of fanatical, well-trained terrorists whose atrocities appear to be the handiwork of indigenous white supremacists or militant groups of ethnic minorities. The coordinated campaign of nationwide bombings and massacres spawns copycat acts that strain the capacity of law- enforcement agencies to keep order. With America's social fabric unraveling, and the military tied down on guard duties calculated to lull the frantic public into a false sense of security, Army Colonel Peter Thorn (a counterterrorism expert with observer status on the case) unearths a computer-communications anomaly suggesting that offshore operatives are responsible for the evil deeds that have all but paralyzed the US. Helen Gray (Thorn's lover) and fellow FBI agents confirm his suspicions in a deadly assault on a safe house. The raid puts Helen in the hospital, but also yields enough information to send Thorn winging off to Tehran at the head of a Delta Force unit ordered to assassinate Taleh before he can launch his invasion fleet across the Persian Gulf.

A triple-A Bond.

Kirkus Reviews