A hunt for Saddam’s gold in Chicoan’s new novel | The Biblio File
Chicoan Mike Paull, a retired dentist and licensed pilot, is the author of a trio of mysteries featuring Bret Raven, who just happens to be a dentist and licensed pilot. In his new book he’s crafted an international spy thriller that takes the reader into Iraq just after the death of Saddam Hussein on Dec. 30, 2006. A small group of Americans from “the Agency” has a lead on the rumored gold hoarded by Saddam and now hidden — somewhere.
“Missing” ($15.95 in paperback from Wings ePress, Inc.; also for Amazon Kindle) tells the tale mostly through the eyes of 40-something flawed family man Craig Cooper, who lives with his wife, Fran, and their 10-year-old son Josh in Virginia. “Coop,” as he is known, struggles to be a good dad and husband, forever promising to give up his dangerous missions yet being sucked back into them, even after the Iraq gold quest goes terribly wrong.
Coop and Randy Nichols (“the station chief for the American Intelligence unit in Baghdad”), along with an interpreter, meet a mysterious man named Mustafa in Sadr City (“the body bag capital of Iraq”), who may know something about the gold. But then a sniper kills Mustafa and Coop is shot in the back. “He reached around to tug at his shirt; it was wet and sticky. … He dropped to his knees, looked at his blood-soaked hand and fell face down in the dirt.”
Yet Coop survives. Ten months later, back at the Agency, Randy, now deputy director, is pressured to assign a reluctant Coop to revisit the failed mission. Josh is crestfallen; it’s the last straw for Fran; and truth to tell Coop has a score to settle with whomever tried to kill him in Iraq.
Coop’s small team includes Zoe Fields, in her early 40s with “the angelic look of a college-girl, but underneath it she was as tough as nails.”
She will need to be; both of their lives are threatened as they unravel the mystery and confront unexpected treachery. It’s a nail-biter with the stakes ramping up from chapter to chapter as the two discover far more than they bargained for.
Get the book and root for Coop.
Dan Barnett teaches philosophy at Butte College. Send review requests to dbarnett99@me.com. Columns archived at https://dielbee.blogspot.com
