Balefire. This item is unavailable.Balefire

A team of dedicated police investigators and crime-lab specialists work against time to track down Thanatos, a professional killer responsible for a series of brutal, unexplained murders

My first, favorite, and (I think) most frightening novel.
BALEFIRE was my first published novel, and it remains my favorite to date, [although DOUBLE BLIND comes in a close second, and I have to confess a perverse fondness for THE ALCHEMIST], if only because it's the most frightening book I've written on a personal level.

Why so frightening? Simply because police officers are almost never trained to deal with professional terrorists, for the perfectly logical reason that it is highly unlikely that they will ever run across such an individual in their entire careers. Instead, they're trained to deal with drunk drivers, thoughtless drug dealers, petty thieves, inept burglars, and the like.

So when a real, honest-to-god professional terrorist named Thanatos shows up along the shoreline of Huntington Beach, California, sent by a anti-American 'Committee' to destroying the scenic beach city as a demonstration against the 1984 Olympic games, the local cops have no idea what's happening, and therefore don't stand much of a chance. Which puts them in a terrible situation when they're forced to chose between defending their city, their families ... and themselves.

A kind review from Playboy: "You'll go from the first chapter to the final sentence before you remember to get up for a sandwich ... beautifully plotted."

From John Saul: "Balefire comes at you like a firestorm. The action starts fast and then accelerates through to the last page."

And Publisher's Weekly: "A real heart-attack of a climax!"