So there’s this concept in international relations called “mutually assured destruction,” in which the United States that made it known that if a foreign country attacks us with a nuclear weapon, we’re going to respond in kind. Thus, if you’re going to remove us from the earth, expect the same, bub.
Nelson DeMille uses this to his narrative advantage in WILD FIRE, having a secret group of rich white businessmen plot to set off a nuclear weapon on American soil, yet make it look like the work of foreign terrorists so the U.S. will return the favor, thereby resulting in the entire Islamic population the men so hate being wiped off the map.
Yeah, it’s a stretch. But fiction is fiction, and who’s going to save the world? Det. John Corey, retired NYPD now working for the FBI. He stumbles into the mess after his colleague assigned to do some undercover fact-finding on the men’s club is discovered and captured by them, led by the villainous Bain Madox, one of those names that just screams “corrupt, immoral, wealthy guy.”
WILD FIRE marks my second DeMille novel, following 2004′s NIGHT FALL, in which Corey investigated the crash of TWA Flight 800, partly via a sex tape. The books are very alike in tone and style, but whereas NIGHT FALL sunk its hooks into you from the start, WILD FIRE skips along the sidewalk, oblivious to everything else.
I blame the story. DeMille takes great pains to give it a “let’s hope this doesn’t really happen” spin in an introductory page, but doesn’t make it feel very real. In fact, for the first 100 pages or so, it comes off as slick action junk, with the bad guys spilling every detail of their sinister plot ad infinitum, like Auric Goldfinger on truth serum. DeMille wants this sucker to have a “ripped from tomorrow’s headlines” feel, but introduces elements not out of place in a Jerry Bruckheimer production; you can’t have it both ways.
Corey also rubbed me raw. Though his no-nonsense demeanor is unchanged, he came across as an arrogant blowhard, apt to make bad choices and even worse jokes (“She though cooking and fucking were two cities in China”). Strangely, I don’t believe his behavior is all that changed from WILD’s immediate predecessor, but combined with everything else, it pushed me away. Next time, we’ll be ready for another close-up, Mr. DeMille. –Rod Lott
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OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THESE AUTHORS:
• NIGHT FALL by Nelson DeMille
Related posts:
- Night Fall
- Wild to Possess / A Taste for Sin
- What Fire Cannot Burn
- Gunslinger and Nine Other Action-Packed Stories of the Wild West
- The Betrayed
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I’d been a fan of DeMille for quite a while though his previous 4 novels had been getting progressively less interesting. Then I read wild fire, which is one of the most vile, loathsome, books I’ve ever read. I’ll never read him again.