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Overview
A shrewd, efficient and popular politician, Madeline O'Keith Turner was eminently qualified to fulfill he duties as America's first woman Vice President. But Fate elevated her to Commander-in-Chief. . .on the eve of her nation's most devastating modern crisis.
From her first day in the Oval Office, Maddie Turner has had to deal with bitter challenges from Congress and duplicity from within the ranks of the Cabinet she inherited from her late predecessor. Now catastrophe is brewing in the East China Sea. Chinese and Japanese fleets are set to collide in the biggest naval engagement since World War Two. And a single false step could result in Turner's impeachment. . .or, worse still, in nuclear war. An untried leader with enemies on all sides must now reach out to her one true ally: National Security Advisor General Robert Bender, a loyal soldier determined to teach his president in record time everything he knows about swift, decisive action and bare-knuckling battling. . .even if it costs his career, and his life, to do so.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
With the sudden death of the president of the U.S., Madeleine Maddy O'Keith Turner, the first woman vice president, unexpectedly adds a more earth-shaking first to her name. Herman Force of Eagles surrounds his woman president with enemies both foreign and domestic. General Robert Bender, her reluctant military adviser, also finds himself between a rock and a hard place. Because of his new political role, he is no longer accepted by his military peers; and because of the president's antipathy to anything martial, he feels outnumbered in her cabinet. In the midst of the tension, China brings the world to the brink of world war with an attack on Japanese territories. Untested, Maddy must prove herself a world-class diplomat and expert in foreign affairs or face possible nuclear catastrophe. Fighting off bureaucratic and military enemies, General Bender tries to educate his commander in chief in global strategies. Meanwhile, Brigadier General David Martini, commanding troops in Okinawa, waits tensely for orders to deploy. Meanwhile, like a Persian cat scenting cream, Maddy's chief of staff, Patrick Shaw, prowls the White House, testing his own political wiles. Herman has created a convincing woman leader. President Turner is an intelligent, sympathetic character who grows stronger as she learns her job. Other major characters too, are more fully realized than in his previous military thrillers. Realistic and suspenseful, this is a timely and thought-provoking story. MayLibrary Journal
Public libraries should expect requests for this title, which may catapult Herman Dark Wing, LJ 5/1/94 from the military/technothriller genre into the best-sellers category. In 2001, a female vice president is in the Oval Office after the president's unexpected death. Intent on tax reform and untried at foreign affairs, President Turner is thrust into an international crisis when China threatens Japan near an American military base. At home are political foes, some very near, determined to bring her down. Herman's White House episodes, political intrigue, military base action, and international negotiations crackle with tension and credibility. This novel shows the dominant role psychology plays in both domestic and foreign affairs. For most popular collections.Rebecca Sturm Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib, Highland HeightsKirkus Reviews
Madeline O'Keith Turner faces a sea of troubles upon becoming the first woman President of the US, and her military aide Robert Bender struggles to guide her through them in a heady change-of- pace yarn from Herman (Iron Gate, 1996, etc.)When a death in the Oval Office puts Maddy Turner in the White House, the comely widow looks for support from Patrick Shaw (her snaky chief of staff) and the true-blue Bender (a three-star Air Force general who wants only to be back with the troops). As it happens, the former California legislator may need something very like divine intervention. Her predecessor secretly sold out Taiwan, and an emboldened Peoples Republic of China is on the move in Asia. Obstinately more concerned with domestic social programs and tax reform, Maddy dithers while Bender burns. Meantime, an unholy alliance of reactionary senators and cabinet members (abetted by the faithless Shaw) is plotting to destroy the Turner presidency. Once the PRC displays its nuclear capabilities with a blast on a deserted but disputed atoll, however, the rookie Chief Executive honors the threat with semi-decisive action. Making Bender her National Security Advisor, she dispatches him to negotiate with the Communist Chinese. Before a deal can be done, hard-liners vying for power in Beijing detain her envoy. At length, she orders a tit-for- tat detonation, which comes a cropper when the atomic warhead fails to explode. With the clock running out on both America's prestige and Bender's life expectancy, the US military scrambles to put another bomb on the showcase target (now occupied by PRC troops). Until the close, though, there's a world of doubt as to whether the bleeding-heart Commander in Chief will use deadly force against an obvious foe.
A conventionally macho technothriller with a wicked twist—a female President whose shaky grasp on geopolitical reality drives the absorbing narrative in surprising ways.