The Standoff

New York, New York, U.S.A.: Doubleday, 1995. 1st edition, April 1995, with complete number line beginning with 1. Fine in fine dust jacket, not price clipped, in protective mylar cover. Author's first book. Calling up chilling images of the hostage fiasco in Waco, Tex., this beautifully paced debut opens with a bang, as white supremacist (and federal fugitive) Glenn Ables, holed up on a Montana mountaintop with his wife and five children, ambushes local law officials who have come to serve an eviction notice. Through a computer blunder, former crack FBI hostage negotiator John Banish, recently discharged from alcohol addiction treatment, is assigned to handle this hostage situation-and attendant media circus. The ensuing struggle between Ables and Banish forms the nub of this tension-filled tale, peopled with compelling-albeit somewhat stereotypical-characters and crackling with true-to-life bureau-babble about politics and turf wars on both local and national levels. Hogan's primitive frontier setting boils with an ill-assorted array of religious fanatics, arms-bearing zealots and skinhead neo-Nazis. (A trigger-happy, African American U.S. marshall and a Native American sheriff add to the potent mix.) A heart-tugging subplot, about Banish's hope to reunite with a wife and daughter estranged because of his violent past, brings an added edge of humanity to this finely crafted and compelling read." -- Publishers Weekly. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Book.