Overview
In the peaceful countryside of the midwest a conspiracy has been born, its leaders among the most respected names in America. They believe their cause is just: to save the nation from leaders too timid to make the tough decisions. Their goal is the White House, and their principle weapon is so preposterous that no one would believe it exists.Ben Driskill, Wall Street attorney and longtime buddy of President Charles Bonner, gets the first hint of the conspiracy when he finds his mentor Drew Summerhayes shot, an apparent suicide, at his Shelter Island home.
Summerhayes himself is so closely linked to the White House that the avid rumors about his death taint President Bonner, battling a re-election challenge from within his won party. Not trusting those closest to him, Bonner asks Ben Driskill to investigate quietly.
Then there are two more killings, this time on the bluffs above the Mississippi, at a serene little town in Iowa called Saints Rest. And before long Ben Driskill is trying to save more than Charlie Bonner's presidency. He's trying to save the future of free elections in the United States.
As in Thomas Gifford's New York Times bestseller, The Assassini, Ben Driskill is the quintessential ordinary man moved to extraordinary measures--too stubborn and too angry to see the odds against him.
From the Paperback edition.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
An attorney's drive to thwart a political conspiracy is "a compelling tale," said PW. (Sept.)Library Journal
Ben Driskill, hero of the author's best-selling The Assassini (Bantam, 1990), returns to fight a threat to the U.S. president.Kirkus Reviews
A paranoid political fantasy elevated to the level of absorbing melodrama by the irresistible narrative talents of old pro Gifford (The First Sacrifice, 1994, etc.).When US President Charles Bonner vows in a state-of-the-union address to make an open book of the domestic intelligence community's budgets, he doesn't realize the consequences for the country or himself. Already preoccupied with a bloody revolution in earthquake-ravaged Mexico, the Chief Executive soon faces a stiff fight for renomination as the Democratic party's presidential candidate in the upcoming election. His challenger is Bob Hazlitt (Perot-like founder of the Heartland Group, an Iowa-based pillar of the military/industrial complex whose stock-in-trade is spy satellites). With only a few weeks to go before the convention, an elder statesman who helped orchestrate Bonner's victory over incumbent Sherman Taylor, a retired USMC general and Medal of Honor winner, dies under suspicious circumstances. His demise puts Ben Driskill on the case. A Wall Street attorney who serves as First Chum (by dint of shared experiences on the Notre Dame football team), the deniable Driskill follows a twisty trail that convinces him Hazlitt and Taylor (now an avowed supporter of the prairie populist) are co-conspirators in a sinister stop-at-nothing plot to seize control of the US government. While Driskill is able to bluff the defense contractor into withdrawing from the campaign, the turncoat marine (who wants another White House tour), his attack- dog subalterns, and a fifth columnist take their fight to the convention floor. As a result, more blood must be spilled before President Bonner can get back on track for a second term and, with heartfelt thanks for helping to keep America safe for democracy, let Driskill resume his Manhattan law practice.
An enthralling tale of a convulsive power struggle that's notable for liberal doses of violent action and a minimum of ideological prattle.