The Executive Order
A Novel
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
In David Fisher's The Executive Order, this one-step-ahead-of-the-headlines thriller, a reporter races to uncover a conspiracy when he learns that the post-Trump president elected to heal the nation has more sinister plans.
In a post-Trump and Biden world, an independent senator, Ian Wrightman, is elected president to heal a nation frayed by extreme partisanship. After years of reporting chaos in the White House, digital journalist Rollie Stone and his colleagues embrace the normalcy. But after the country is rocked by a series of devastating terrorist attacks, the new administration springs into action and begins rolling out executive orders that claim to protect the American people—while slowly chipping away at their constitutional freedoms.
Rollie Stone is a wounded warrior whose hi-tech Mighty Chair serves as his unique assistant in investigations. When he uncovers evidence that the terrorist attacks are being coordinated much closer to home, he knows he needs to get this information into safe hands—but the president has declared war, and through his new executive powers is rounding up journalists, dissenters, and anyone else who gets in his way. Forced on the run with the help of an underground resistance movement, Rollie finds himself in a race for his life to reveal the truth. But who can he trust?
In this all-too-realistic thriller inspired by the Sinclair Lewis classic, It Can't Happen Here, one journalist will do whatever it takes to stop his country turning from democracy to dictatorship.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this underwhelming near-future political thriller from Fisher (The Pack), the failures of the Biden administration set the stage for the election in 2024 of President Ian Wrightman, a career politician considered a lightweight by his Senate colleagues who ran on the slogan "restore order." On July 11, 2026, terrorists attack the Pearl Harbor Memorial, New York's Lincoln Tunnel, and Louisiana's Atchafalaya River, killing thousands. Months later, cyberterrorists hack into the system of a passenger plane and take control, eventually landing the plane safely. In response to these incidents, Wrightman pushes through initiatives that curtail free expression and civil liberties. His efforts are monitored by journalist Rollie Stone, who becomes more and more alarmed at Wrightman's power grab. Implausible details, such as Uber offering firearm rentals and Rollie's comment that "ambulances from every hospital in the city" were trapped racing to a two-vehicle accident in Manhattan, erode the suspension of disbelief. Margaret Atwood this is not. Those interested in how a competent president could wreak havoc on the U.S. might want to check out this polemic.
