State Scarlet - Softcover

David Aaron

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0671650904 ISBN 13: 9780671650902

Publisher: Pocket, 1988

Synopsis

When a caller tells the White House he has stolen a U.S. nuclear device and will set it off in a major European city, power struggles erupt in Washington and Moscow

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Involved in government and intelligence for over a decade, and a participant in the SALT I and SALT II negotiations, Aaron knows what he is writing about. This taut and compelling first novel is terrifying in its credibility. The number of cities in the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. have long been eclipsed by the number of nuclear weapons both sides possess. Of the thousands of atomic bombs in the world, one finally finds its way into the hands of a deluded terrorist, a mistreated former CIA operative with connections to the Soviets. The bomb is an American one, and the threat is that a major European city will be destroyed if the U.S. does not immediately pull out of Europe. We follow the hunt for the terrorist by an American-Russian team, and the escalation of the situation until the world teeters on the brink of war. Meanwhile, the two nations' leaders desperately look for a way to stop their cabinet hawks from initiating a first strike. It is not just the overwhelming number of weapons, but political expediency and incompetent management that will propel us to Armageddon, suggests Aarons. This harrowing story tells how it is and chillingly predicts how it possiblyor probablywill be. The world would do well to take heed. Literary Guild alternate.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Does anyone know where all our missiles are at any one time? Could one be taken and used to blackmail the President into changing policy? Aaron's experience in foreign affairs, nuclear security, and high-level Washington and international politics brings authoritative insight to the answers he proposes in this remarkable first novel. He captures not only the petty bickering but also the high stakes power games of politicos. His portraits of an all too human U.S. president and his advisors, and their Russian counterparts, are remarkable. And his skillful attention to detail makes the search "for a disturbed young man . . . who has in his hands the power to set off a chain reaction of events that may engulf the earth in a nuclear war" believable and scary. A political thriller on a par with the best of the genreaccomplished, polished, exciting, notable. Literary Guild alternate. Jean B. Palmer, Phillips Acad. Lib., Andover, Mass.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pocket
• Publication date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0671650904
• ISBN 13: 9780671650902
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 416