He has traveled extensively, encountering everyone from Polish cops to arms dealers and child prostitutes. An author and screenwriter, Smith is no stranger to the world of Cooper Chance. Hoping to rescue her, Cooper agrees to the mission, which he carries out with unexpected consequences. He balks, but then the teenage prostitute he has promised to save is trafficked and disappears. Following the discovery of huge oil reserves, the CIA offers Cooper a way home without jail time if he undertakes a risky, high-stakes mission. So he bides his time, trading diamonds to survive, and has a love affair with a deceitful young merchant. The catch is that imprisonment awaits him there, and his acute claustrophobia makes that an impossible choice. Though Cooper is a stoic and hard- fighting soldier, the “gritty world of thugs, prostitutes and corrupt cops” has left him yearning for one thing: home. Cooper Chance, an army sharpshooter and deserter, is recruited to fight in an African country tormented by civil war. 42 NOVEMBER 2012 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Cooper’s Promise: A Novel Timothy Jay Smith, Owl Canyon Press, 2012, $16.95, paperback, 228 pages.
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