The Washington Decree
A Novel
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3.9 • 49 Ratings
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
INSPIRATION FOR THE NETFLIX SERIES DEPT. Q
The New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of the Department Q series is back, with a terrifyingly relevant stand-alone novel about an America in chaos.
"The president has gone way too far. . . . These are practically dictatorial methods we're talking about."
Sixteen years before Democratic Senator Bruce Jansen was elected president of the United States, a PR stunt brought together five very different people: fourteen-year-old Dorothy "Doggie" Rogers, small-town sheriff T. Perkins, single mother Rosalie Lee, well-known journalist John Bugatti, and the teenage son of one of Jansen's employees, Wesley Barefoot. In spite of their differences, the five remain bonded by their shared experience and devotion to their candidate.
For Doggie, who worked the campaign trail with Wesley, Jansen's election is a personal victory: a job in the White House, proof to her Republican father that she was right to support Jansen, and the rise of an intelligent, clear-headed leader with her same ideals. But the triumph is short-lived: Jansen's pregnant wife is assassinated on election night, and the alleged mastermind behind the shooting is none other than Doggie's own father.
When Jansen ascends to the White House, he is a changed man, determined to end gun violence by any means necessary. Rights are taken away as quickly as weapons. International travel becomes impossible. Checkpoints and roadblocks destroy infrastructure. The media is censored. Militias declare civil war on the government. The country is in chaos, and Jansen's former friends each find themselves fighting a very different battle, for themselves, their rights, their country . . . and, in Doggie's case, the life of her father, who just may be innocent.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
First published in Denmark in 2006, Adler-Olsen's far-fetched political thriller plays out in a near-future Washington, D.C., where newly elected President Bruce Jansen tries to centralize power by suspending parts of the Constitution. Convinced the country is headed for ruin after his wife's assassination, Jansen takes several measures to severely limit civil rights. Meanwhile, wealthy hotel magnate Bud Curtis, a political rival of the president, is arrested for the killing of Jansen's wife. The arrest complicates the career of Curtis's daughter, Doggie, who has worked for Jansen for many years. As her father's execution date nears the death penalty runs rampant in this milieu Doggie abandons her White House job and sets out to prove her father's innocence. The ponderous plot moves in ways that strain belief. Fans of the author's long-running Department Q crime series (The Scarred Woman, etc.) won't find much to like.)
Customer Reviews
The Washington Decree is Fantasy
I enjoyed the novel enormously even though it exaggerates the prospects for an autocrat taking over the U.S. government. I say that even though we are now living through Trump’s effort to do exactly that and on some days it seems he is succeeding. The bottom line so far, however, is that the courts are asserting the rule of law. We’ll see.
I might have given 5 stars had I not gone on to read the appendix discussing Executive Orders and the alleged powers of FEMA. This entire section is either a deliberate falsification or the work of someone lacking full comprehension of English and possessing no knowledge of the actual workings of the U.S. government. Recent events have made glaringly obvious that the U.S. democracy is far from perfect and obviously is not invulnerable to willful misconduct at least in the lorna term. Quite the contrary, we are witnessing almost daily examples of the deliberate deprivation of rights under color of law including imprisonment of citizens and immigrants without due process and misprision on a grand scale to avoid being held held accountable by the Congress, the courts, or the people. Democratic procedures take time, so it is too soon to assess the U.S.’s ability to withstand Trump attacks on
Too Much
Plot way too much to believe