Two reporters -- she works for the New York Times, he for CBS
news -- are the protags of "Private Sector," an undervalued
thriller written by Jeff Millar. I'm not sure if they're
hardboiled, but they are dogged. And the book's premise is
certainly hardboiled. The idea is that whenever terrorists
hold US citizens for ransom a special squad is called in to
kill everybody and make it look like an accidental disaster,
thereby depriving the terrorists of any publicity. The case
in point, as I recall, involves a takeover of a neighborhood
theater showing a Clint Eastwood movie. The terrorists are
only trying to make a point: they'll release everyone if the
president agrees to delay the Superbowl for five minutes. The
hit team burns the theater to the ground, killing several
hundred Eastwood fans and the six terrorists. The leader of
the team uses the philosophy that when the innocents entered
the theater it was the same as if they'd stepped in front of
a car. I can't remember another thriller premise that has
registered so powerfully with me. I read the book back in '79
and since then every time I've heard about a plane crash or a
fatal fire at a rock club, etc., it makes me wonder.
I believe it was Millar's first (and possibly only) book. The
jacket says he was a columnist for the Houston Chronicle and
creator of the Tank McNamara comic strip.
Dick Lochte
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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