The Power Curve - Hardcover

Richard Herman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0340675020 ISBN 13: 9780340675021

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 1997

Synopsis

A shrewd, efficient and popular politician, Madeline O'Keith Turner was eminently qualified to fulfill he duties as America's first woman Vice President. But Fate elevated her to Commander-in-Chief. . .on the eve of her nation's most devastating modern crisis.

From her first day in the Oval Office, Maddie Turner has had to deal with bitter challenges from Congress and duplicity from within the ranks of the Cabinet she inherited from her late predecessor. Now catastrophe is brewing in the East China Sea. Chinese and Japanese fleets are set to collide in the biggest naval engagement since World War Two. And a single false step could result in Turner's impeachment. . .or, worse still, in nuclear war. An untried leader with enemies on all sides must now reach out to her one true ally: National Security Advisor General Robert Bender, a loyal soldier determined to teach his president in record time everything he knows about swift, decisive action and bare-knuckling battling. . .even if it costs his career, and his life, to do so.

About this title

About the Author

A former weapons system operator, Richard Herman was a member of the United States Air Force for twenty-one years, until he retired in 1983 with the rank of major. He is the author of ten previous novels, including The Warbirds, Power Curve, Against All Enemies, Edge of Honor, and The Trojan Sea, all published by Avon Books. Herman currently lives and works in Gold River, a suburb of Sacramento, California.

From Kirkus Reviews

Madeline O'Keith Turner faces a sea of troubles upon becoming the first woman President of the US, and her military aide Robert Bender struggles to guide her through them in a heady change-of- pace yarn from Herman (Iron Gate, 1996, etc.) When a death in the Oval Office puts Maddy Turner in the White House, the comely widow looks for support from Patrick Shaw (her snaky chief of staff) and the true-blue Bender (a three-star Air Force general who wants only to be back with the troops). As it happens, the former California legislator may need something very like divine intervention. Her predecessor secretly sold out Taiwan, and an emboldened Peoples Republic of China is on the move in Asia. Obstinately more concerned with domestic social programs and tax reform, Maddy dithers while Bender burns. Meantime, an unholy alliance of reactionary senators and cabinet members (abetted by the faithless Shaw) is plotting to destroy the Turner presidency. Once the PRC displays its nuclear capabilities with a blast on a deserted but disputed atoll, however, the rookie Chief Executive honors the threat with semi-decisive action. Making Bender her National Security Advisor, she dispatches him to negotiate with the Communist Chinese. Before a deal can be done, hard-liners vying for power in Beijing detain her envoy. At length, she orders a tit-for- tat detonation, which comes a cropper when the atomic warhead fails to explode. With the clock running out on both America's prestige and Bender's life expectancy, the US military scrambles to put another bomb on the showcase target (now occupied by PRC troops). Until the close, though, there's a world of doubt as to whether the bleeding-heart Commander in Chief will use deadly force against an obvious foe. A conventionally macho technothriller with a wicked twist--a female President whose shaky grasp on geopolitical reality drives the absorbing narrative in surprising ways. (First printing of 50,000) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0340675020
• ISBN 13: 9780340675021
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 405