Published last year by Penguin, Exposed is a thriller written in page-turning prose, involving the Russian Mafia, rogue KGB agents in America and a secret as old as Auschwitz. He went to law school and became an associate at Dewey Ballantine, a top Wall Street firm. All the while he invested his money and papered his nest, dreaming of the day when he could leave the rat race, retire to his word processor and write. After six years at the bar, Koeper finally made the break. With his wife, also an attorney, Koeper returned to the Milwaukee area in 1992.
Legal arguments are logical, much like a thriller.
It took over a year to compose Exposed . Along the way Koeper, whose previous experience was limited to a few short stories, was forced to revise and revise, to learn the novelist's craft by doing it. By early 1994 he secured a New York agent, who later that year got Koeper a two-book deal with Penguin. It's a typical situation for the first novel from an unknown novelist. Exposed benefits from the author's familiarity with the New York setting.