The Patriots' Club by
Christopher Reich
hbk out August 05
Published by Headline
at £18.99
Yet another American 'great conspiracy' story, but one that is a cut above
the pack, as it offers an ambitious canvas and has some solid US history
behind it.
The general theme is that ever since the Revolution, when Britain had the
lack of foresight to hang on to our Trans-Atlantic colonies, there has been
a secret club composed of top Yanks, including the President, who by
fair means or foul, control the destiny of the nation irrespective of the
wishes of Congress and especially the will of the people, which is looked
on as irrelevant. The seizing of Alaska, Hawaii and the Philippines
were all engineered by this empire-building caucus, as was the sinking of
the Lusitania and the scuttling of the USS Maine to provoke involvement
in wars.
This powerful cabal is threatened by a tough New York investment
banker, Thomas Bolen, when he is wrongly identified as acting against
them. With virtually all the US law enforcement agencies at their
disposal, the Club get him accused of murder and sent on the run, which
continues at breakneck speed until he foils a plot to assassinate the first
woman President at her inauguration ceremony, after she refuses to join
the Club.
Apart from being a racy thriller, there is a great deal of historical and
contemporary fact in the book that certainly makes you think, such as the
assertion that the US Forces are sometimes so strapped for cash that
during the Iraq conflict, one unit actually ran out of fifty-cent bullets.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
The Patriots' Club by
Christopher Reich
