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THE ENEMY WITHIN by Noel Hynd

THE ENEMY WITHIN

by Noel Hynd

Pub Date: March 7th, 2006
ISBN: 0-765-30612-3
Publisher: Forge

Someone homicidal is stalking the president. But how can a would-be assassin hope to evade the peerless U.S. Secret Service? Goodness, he is Secret Service!

The viper in the bosom of the agency is clever, ruthless and ideologically motivated. Throw in the $10 million promised by a “hostile foreign government,” and clearly the good guys have a situation on their hands. Enter Laura Chapman, veteran member of the Presidential Protection Detail: mid-30s, attractive, tough and no more paranoid than the job requires. Summoned by her boss, Laura's told that gender places her above suspicion, it having been gleaned from a credible source that the traitor is male. For that reason, among others, she becomes point person in a frantic investigation. Enter “Charley Boy,” the aforementioned source, who turns out to be a half-Thai, half-American, $1,500-a-night hooker named Anna Muang, and who, in the course of performing her ancient calling, overheard bits and pieces of the POTUS plot. Anna likes the U.S. and the idea of the American Dream, and she is passing on information to earn the thanks of a grateful nation, plus a U.S. passport. Laura meets with her and leaves convinced that Anna knows even more than she thinks she does about a certain “blond man” of evil intent. Which, it turns out, is a precarious position for poor Anna to be in. As show-down time approaches, even Laura wonders if she can out-duel so accomplished a villain. In the West Wing, only feet from the Oval Office, a climactic, blood-drenched gun battle ensues, and when the smoke clears . . .

Hynd (The Prodigy, 1998, etc.) has given us an intriguing heroine, some first-rate action scenes and about 100 pages more than a good suspense novel can sustain.