Staeger, Will

PERSONAL: Married; children: two. Education: Attended University of Southern California.

ADDRESSES: Home—CT. Agent—c/o Author Mail, William Morrow, 10 E. 53rd St., 7th Fl., New York, NY 10022. E-mail—will@willstaeger.com.

CAREER: Writer, television news anchor, and film director. Television news reporter in Pacific Northwest, including as nightly news anchor for TV-27 NewsCentral, Wenatchee, WA; weekend anchor and beat reporter for Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) affiliate, Medford, OR; local Today Show and Headline News cut-in anchor for National Broadcasting Company (NBC) affiliate, Eugene, OR; Warner Brothers Studios, Los Angeles, CA, film script developer; Paramount Pictures, Los Angeles, film script developer and senior vice president; Entertainment & Sports Network (ESPN), Bristol, CT, currently executive producer of original entertainment programming.

WRITINGS:

Painkiller (novel), Morrow (New York, NY), 2005.

Also author of several screenplays. Contributor to periodicals.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A second "Cooper" novel.

SIDELIGHTS: In his first novel, Painkiller, Will Staeger presents a spy story featuring a semi-retired Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent known simply as W. Cooper. Based in the British Virgin Islands, where there is little need for a CIA operative, Cooper is asked by the local police to look into a murder case. Cooper, who spends most of his time drinking and generally cavorting with women tourists, is reluctant but agrees to look into the matter. As Cooper works on the case, he begins to detect a link between the murder and a China-based conspiracy discovered by CIA junior analyst Julie Laramie, who is in trouble with her bosses for uncovering a politically sensitive situation. Before long, the two team up to stop the plot, which includes nuclear radiation poisoning, witch doctors, and zombies. A Kirkus Reviews contributor commented that "the action is rapid-fire and obligatorily violent, and the Cooper-Julie pairing downright delicious." Writing on BookReporter.com, M.J. Rose called the novel "part thriller, part crime fiction, part quirky, dark and different." Rose went on to add that Painkiller "is a hard-edged, cinematic, and tremendously engaging first effort." A Publishers Weekly contributor commented that the author "displays a real knack for creating cinematic scenes in his engaging first thriller." Hilary Williamson, writing on the BookLoons Web site, called the effort a "powerful debut thriller" and an "absorbing read, that ends with a big bang." A reviewer writing in Wisconsin Bookwatch commented that the book is "a roller coaster ride of a read."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2005, review of Painkiller, p. 505.

Publishers Weekly, May 23, 2005, review of Painkiller, p. 58.

Wisconsin Bookwatch, August, 2005, review of Painkiller.

ONLINE

BookLoons, http://www.bookloons.com/ (October 17, 2005), Hilary Williamson, review of Painkiller.

BookReporter.com, http://www.bookreporter.com/ (October 17, 2005), M.J. Rose, review of Painkiller.

Will Staeger Home Page, http://www.willstaeger.com (October 17, 2005).