Removal
A Novel of Suspense
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
United States president Steve Wade believes his latest affair, with the beautiful Lucia Benoni, is a secret. When Lucia is murdered under mysterious circumstances, FBI agent Kelly Smith is called to investigate. As he dives deeper into the case, he uncovers links between Lucia, a hostile foreign power, a group of vicious white supremacists, and a shadowy high-placed Washington figure known only as “Fox.”
As Wade continues to deny the affair, the press gets on the trail and latches onto the sensational breaking story with increasing tenacity. Because of the national security implications, there are demands in Congress for his impeachment. Vice President Ellen Trevathan should, by law, take power, but “Fox” and his associates have other plans. As time runs out, Kelly may hold the only key to preventing a coup d’etat and nothing short of civil war.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
David Baldacci fans will best appreciate Murphy's implausible first novel, a political thriller set in a post-Obama America. In the prologue, the attorney general briefs the country's military leaders on the secret Williamsburg Doctrine, adopted in 1965 to allow a military veto of succession to the presidency by a vice president hat the Joint Chiefs of Staff deem unreliable. Flashbacks make clear why the current president, Steve Wade, an unrepentant womanizer, is facing impeachment. Having lied to the public about his relationship with Lebanese national Lucia Benoni, Wade is between a rock and a hard place after Benoni is found shot in the back of the head, execution style, in a D.C. apartment. In her purse is a VIP pass to the White House. Uncovering what's really going on becomes the mission of the latest FBI agent in search of redemption, 30-year-old Kelly Smith, who reveals the usual high-level conspiracy familiar to readers of this subgenre.
