Moon News features Coastside author Diana Chambers

The U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001. A June 1, 2006 editorial in the New York Times states, "Something has gone alarmingly wrong in Afghanistan, previously touted as the Bush administration’s one quasi-successful venture in nation-building…."  In the topical thriller, Stinger (Aventine Press, July 1, 2006; Paperback; $13.95), local author Diana R. Chambers sets the stage for the issues and events still unfolding in war-torn Afghanistan.

On Wednesday, September 13th at 7 PM, Diana Chambers will read from her latest suspense novel, Stinger, at Moon News Bookstore, 315 Main Street, Half Moon Bay. Stinger tells the story behind the story, the story of how this ancient Silk Road land became once again a crossroads of invaders and spies.  Stinger is a political thriller whose subtext relates to the ongoing Great Game that the world leaders play, their pawns in this case the Afghan people themselves.

In the 1980s, the heroic Afghan resistance to the Soviet invasion galvanized the world: David slinging rocks at Goliath, and somehow managing to survive. As supported by a US covert assistance program—which included shoulder-fired Stinger missiles—the mujahideen gained a stunning victory that led to the collapse of the USSR. Too late, the Russians learned that the tribal peoples of Afghanistan can not tolerate an invader and will always unite against the farangi (foreigner). This novel takes us back to those earlier days and shows the roots of America’s current involvement in Afghanistan.

Stinger opens in the dusty border town of Peshawar, Pakistan, where we meet Nick Daley, the unorthodox CIA officer from Chambers’ The Company She Keeps. The intrigue begins with the disappearance of the first shipment of American Stingers—the portable missiles that threaten Soviet might—and then deepens with a mysterious graveyard murder. The arrival of San Francisco journalist, Robin Reeves, stirs things up further. Gradually an unusual love story will unfold, a triangle involving Nick, Robin and her former Berkeley lover, Jamal, now an elusive mujahideen chief in Afghanistan—a man with many enemies. These characters lead us into a world of danger, a world of spy versus spy, where no one is what he or she seems. Where hidden agendas provide their own kind of veil… until the mystery is resolved in a shattering climax.

DIANA R. CHAMBERS
Featured Author
MOON NEWS BOOKSTORE
315 Main Street, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
Wednesday, September 13th at 7 PM