Chain of command

Description

A taut, exciting and all-too-believable political thriller by Reagan administration defense secretary Weinberger and collaborator Schweizer (*The Next War*, 1996). It’s a post-9/11 world, and Vice President Morgan Boyd is ticked off. His wife has been killed in Delhi, the victim of a bomb meant for him, and his superior, Dean Fairbank, has a soft spot for constitutional niceties that prevent an all-out war on terror. The solution? Well, it helps if the president is out of the way. Unfortunately for him, Secret Service agent Mike Delaney, who screwed up back in Delhi, is implicated; someone’s taken an awful lot of time and trouble to set him up, for reasons best known to him. Arrayed against Delaney are a whole lot of Delta Force types, to say nothing of a rogue team headed by a forcibly retired former Army colleague of Delaney’s and an extremely unpleasant Chilean black-ops specialist, neither of whom thinks twice about killing. Boyd’s plan is elegant: pin the assassination on the right-wing militia, the professional type not “composed of high school dropouts with beer guts who’ve been carrying a chip on their shoulder since they failed the Postal Service entrance exam,” crack down on domestic dissent, declare martial law and head to war with all guns blazing. Sadly for Boyd, though, Delaney is a resourceful fellow, backed by an initially doubtful ally and onetime lover named Mary Campos (“Just look at her, Mr. President. There may be a better-looking woman in the United States Army, but if there is, I haven’t met her”). Matters are complicated, too, by the fact that some officers still remember the business about unlawful orders and the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the government’s going to war against its own citizens, even in Alabama. Crisscrossing the Appalachians, a step ahead of some very bad guys, Delaney does his thing, leaving much to clean up in his wake. [Kirkus Reviews][1] [1]: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/caspar-weinberger/chain-of-command/

Description

In this riveting novel by two of Washington's ultimate insiders, the chain of command is threatened when political power is bought in blood. Secret Service Agent Michael Delaney has devoted his entire career to protecting America's highest ranking elected officials. But when his gun is found next to the bloody corpse of the President of the United States, he becomes the prime suspect in a brutal assassination that stuns the nation. As the vice president assumes control of the shaken government, a series of violent terrorist attacks is launched in cities across America, causing the government to take ever more desperate steps to keep the population safe. Shockingly, the resourceful enemy they are fighting comes not from another country but from within America's borders. Unsure who he can trust, Delaney finds an unexpected ally in Mary Campos, the president's newly appointed terrorism czar. With each passing hour, the potential for catastrophe grows and the web of evidence implicating Delaney in the plot grows more convincing. It will take all his cunning and years of special training to find out who is framing him for the murder of a president. Not only are his reputation and liberty at stake but the liberty of all Americans. Former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and acclaimed writer Peter Schweizer take readers deep inside the U.S. government's secret halls of power. From the Pentagon to Camp David, from the White House Situation Room to the inner sanctums of the FBI, the authors share their intimate knowledge of Washington's behind-the-scenes world to spin an explosive tale of intrigue that is chillingly real and breathtakingly suspenseful.

Subjects

Genres

• Fiction.

Other Editions

• Chain of commandAtria Books2005-01-01
• Chain of commandThorndike Press2005-01-01
• Chain of commandPocket Star Books2006-01-01