Desert Fire

by David Hagberg and Sean Flannery

Book Overview

The nationally bestselling, award-winning author of Countdown returns with this highly-acclaimed, explosive global thriller. Saddam Hussein wants an atom bomb--and those standing in his way killed. His most accomplished assassin and his sensuous but sadistic daughter are out to do just that--when confronted by the West's finest counter-intelligence agent.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812524527
• ISBN13: 9780812524529
• Release Date: August 1994
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 6.7"

Customer Reviews

Good Fun

This book has German's, Iraqis, the PLO, WW 2 war criminals and Nuclear bombs - - what more could an action reader want? The story is one were the German government is providing to the Iraqis a nuclear reactor. The Germans want the money and the Iraqis want to build the bomb, what could go wrong? Well all is going well until a few people turn up murdered and the mystery solving begins.The story runs all over the Middle East and Europe, the main character is a dark guy just trying to get this on solved and to get back home. Over all the tail is interesting and fast moving, and given what we hear on the news it could have some very real parts. Overall this is an all around good book, well worth your time.

An all too real thriller

This is a combination of an excellent murder mystery, an international adventure, the tale of how parents can complicate lives for their children and a warning about the efforts of Saddam Hussein to acquire nuclear weapons.The story is centered on Iraq having a secret deal with a large German company to engineer a nuclear facility that would also as a by-product produce weapons grade nuclear material. The contract is for over six billion dollars. The German government faced with rising unemployment was eager to keep the contract secret and in order to keep the money flowing.A German spy of Iranian origin undercover at the facility is killed. It becomes necessary to find a police detective who will investigate the murder without risking the jobs or exposing other potential negative complications that could affect Germany itself.The novel is well told, will keep you wondering about the next event and the next complication. It is also a salutary reminder that Saddam Hussein is real, does want nuclear weapons, and is actively trying to buy them and build them. I personally interviewed the defector who had been the head of the Iraqi nuclear weapons program and who had 7,000 Iraqis working for him when he defected in 1994. Recently the New York Times reported that a new defector had personally visited 20 sites in Iraq last year in which chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons of mass destruction were being worked on.This novel should remind us that a very vicious dictatorship with a habit of torturing and killing its own people is eager to get the kind of weapons that could blackmail us or cause us enormous losses of life. It is well worth reading.

More like 4 1/2 stars...

I originally picked up this book after having read several previous Kirk McGarvey novels, and figured that this was just another one...well it sure does pay to read the sleeve to a book, first...but in this case, it landed me a rather exciting good-old-fashioned murder/mystery novel which had some espionage undertones.Just about everything in this story is done well. The overall story of murder, and the who, what & why's only serve to make this a mystery with plenty of action. Hagberg certainly CAN serve up a top-notch thriller whether McGarvey is one of the main characters or not. I highly recommend this to any person who is looking for a mystery with James Bond-like flavor to it. Actually, I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys any of Mr. Hagbergs other books, or Clancy or Cussler for that matter. Great depiction of Saddam after Iraq's embarassing defeat at the hands of us 'infidels'. A real sense of urgency is put out to achieve this nuclear reactor so weapons grade plutonium can be manufactured...the sooner the better. Iraq's ultimate goal of revenge cannot be far from the fiction portrayed within this story, and sorta chills me to the bone when I think about how real it just may become one day. Hagberg really IS a major find for those who enjoy action/adventure in the Clancy/Cussler tradition, but with a totally original taste. Great stuff.

An Exciting Book!

This was a good effort by David Hagberg to use the notorious reputaion of Saddam Hussein to cast him as a villain in a book. Saddam,after losing the Gulf War,attempts to obtain a nuclear reactor to buils an atomic bomb. He sends his chief enforcer who his a backgroumd in terrorism(1972 olympics for example) to obtain his reactor. His enforcer is accompanied by his ruthless daughter. The only one to stop this group is a German detective. This book has plenty of action and will definitely keep you reading. Once again Hagberg proves himself to be a good writer. He has once again come through with a good book.