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The Washington Decree

A Novel

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
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.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      June 11, 2018
      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. Agent: Rudi Urban Rasmussen, Politiken Literary Agency (Denmark).

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Originally published in 2006, this Danish political thriller now has an English translation, with Jason Culp narrating the audio edition. Former Virginia governor Bruce Jansen wins the 2008 presidential election. Having lost two wives to public assassinations, he then enacts drastic executive orders to reduce gun violence, in turn stripping away many personal freedoms. The result is, somewhat predictably, pandemonium. Culp's precise reading and taut pacing will help listeners wade through an increasingly convoluted plot. Some other blemishes--like the nauseatingly named protagonist, Doggie Curtis--are no fault of Culp's. He generally manages to flesh out the central characters, all of whom spend many years in Jansen's orbit. Culp's performance is compelling enough to recommend this audiobook, uneven and unwieldy as it may be. A.T.N. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

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  • English

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