RATING: D
SYNOPSIS (From Amazon.com): In 2012, with a centrist/conservative president in the White House, the federal government plots to detonate a nuclear bomb in a U.S. city and blame Iran as a cover to take out that country’s radical leadership. Standing in the plotters’ way is Ace Futrell, an energy expert whose murdered wife was possibly targeted by U.S. intelligence.
REVIEW: I loved the first 3/4 of this book. The more I read, the more convinced I was that there was some truth to this book’s allegations, especially those concerning 9/11 (that the U.S. and international intelligence community, including Vladimir Putin, knew about the impending attack and had warned the White House about it). The oil-is-about-to-run-out scenarios and the doomsday forecasts surrounding also rang true. What do these two situations have to do with this fictional novel? Those two things are what propel our hero, Ace Futrell, to action. In the beginning, we see his wife’s murder, and this is what initially starts him on his Quest for the Truth. But the more he discovers, the more sinister things become, until at the very end Los Angeles is nuked. Exciting action, compelling story, sympathetic characters.
But then I fell out of love the last 1/4 of the book. Why? Because I hate it when the bad guys don’t get their comeuppance. Alten painted them as so self-righteous, so patronizing, so evil, so set in their ways, that I wanted them not only to fail but to fail big. But what happens? They succeed in blowing up Los Angeles, in creating panic in the American population, in their positioning of oil prices, in basically everything they set out to do except for elect the president of their choice.
Blech. This book disappointed me. So what if the ending is probably realistic? It’s FICTION. Give me my happy, nay, my TRIUMPHANT ending and ease the hero’s suffering. I hate it when authors make me fall in love with the long-suffering heroes but do not give me a payoff in the form of alleviating said hero’s suffering (yeah, I’m talking to you, John Grisham).
It looks like you are a true specialist. Did ya study about the issue? lol