Enemies foreign and dosmetic: Mathew Bracken, 2003, Steel Cutter Publishing

Guns Magazine, Nov, 2005 by David Codrea

"A stadium massacre leads to the banning of all semi-automatic rifles," the teaser on the jacket reads. "But who really fired the fatal shots, and why?"

The answer, we learn, involves nothing less than a modern day Reichstag fire, engineered and instigated by an evil and ambitious ATF supervisor and his squad of violent agency misfits. The political fallout of the stadium shooting is a national ban on "assault weapons." With free rein to create more "domestic terror" incidents, and with unprincipled politicians and a complicit media, gun owners are easily demonized as a manipulated public demands more "security."

All Brad Fallon wanted to do was restore his vintage sailboat, Guajira, take his savings from three years of working ANWR oil fields, and cruise the world. He hadn't counted on his interest and proficiency in shooting being used to entrap him, or being ultimately forced into covert rebellion against rogue federal agents.

But back a man into a corner with other men--all proficient in modern weaponry, and all unbending believers in liberty--make it clear that you mean to destroy them, and a most dangerous type of resistance is born: a competent one.

Author Matthew Bracken has written a thrilling first novel (did I mention this is also a passionate love story), one that engages, grips and doesn't let up. He avoids the proselytizing that can plague the liberty genre, and delivers a solid, exciting tale with deep and believable characters. Bracken's background with UDT and SEAL teams, and as the designer/builder of a cutter that he soloed from Panama to Guam, adds credibility to the technical and tactical details he weaves into the plot. I can't wait for the sequel, scheduled for release early in 2006.

Enemies Foreign and Domestic ISBN 0-9728310-1-0, Trade Paperback (Signed) $20.00 (includes S&H--CA residents" $21.50), Matthew Bracken, PO Box 90443, San Diego, CA 92169, www..enemiesforeignanddomestic.co