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Summary
Summary
When Charles McCarry's The Better Angels was first published almost 30 years ago, its premise--that terrorists would use passenger-filled airliners as tools of terror--seemed incredible. In retrospect, the novel would prove to be prophetic. The Better Angels takes place in an election year close to the turn of the century in a deeply polarized America. The presidential race matches a tall, lantern-jawed liberal to a far-right former businessman with deep ties to the energy industry. Meanwhile, Islamic terrorists led by an oil-rich Arab prince, desperate to acquire nuclear bombs to use against Israel or major American cities, disrupt the presidential campaign through a series of bloody suicide bombing. Finally the election itself is stolen, as one side hacks into computerized voting systems to change the tallies in key states. From the writer the New York Times Book Review called "the genuine article," The Better Angels is a thrilling and relevant masterwork.
Author Notes
Albert Charles McCarry Jr. was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts on June 14, 1930. He enlisted in the Army, where he wrote for Stars and Stripes and edited a weekly Army newspaper in Bremerhaven, Germany. He was a dishwasher and newspaper reporter before becoming an assistant and speechwriter to Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell. After two years, McCarry was recruited by the C.I.A. He worked for nine years as a deep cover operative in Europe, Asia and Africa.
He became an author of both fiction and nonfiction. His fiction works included Ark and The Paul Christopher series. His nonfiction works included Citizen Nader and three memoirs - two written with Alexander Haig Jr. and one written with Donald T. Regan. McCarry died from complications of a cerebral hemorrhage caused by a fall on February 26, 2019 at the age of 88.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Kirkus Review
McCarry (The Secret Lovers) turns to an aged political theme here: Do the ends justify the means? When is idealism a luxury one can't afford? How much can one overlook in order to let the imperfect but preferable ""better angels"" remain in charge? And his basic plot--a U.S. President with a secret he's been covering up--has been going 'round and 'round ever since Watergate, most recently in Ehrlichman's The Whole Truth (p. 279). But McCarry is a shrewd storyteller, and this savvy tale--set in the 1990s, but with only a few, quiet futuristic touches--seems more fresh than not, without any shadows of Watergate's stock characters. The scandal about to break: Pres. Franklin (""Frosty"") Mallory secretly ordered the pseudo-suicide murder of a mad Islamic leader who was about to launch nuclear attacks on Israel, maybe even the U.S. And this story has now somehow been leaked to top TV newsman Patrick Graham, whose investigative reporting unseated the previous president (a potential Hitler); so Graham is doggedly gathering clues and pressing the White House for answers. Caught in the middle--likable, well-bred White House aide Julian Rogers, a man with a triple connection to the crisis: he knew about the assassination from the start; his suave half-brother Horace turns out to he the CIA (now called FIS) man in charge of the operation; and years ago he won out over Patrick Graham in a love triangle. (Graham, an ex-radical and self-made man, still bears something of a proletarian grudge.) Will Graham release this disastrous story even though he vastly prefers Pres. Mallory to the alternative, even though the assassination was probably the best thing for the world? And, if so, how will Mallory and ambivalent, decent Julian (whose young second wife has a miscarriage and blames it on all the lying going on) fight back? The skulduggerous twist at the end is a bit farfetched, but, along the way, the ambiences convince, the dialogue bristles, and the personalities rub against one another smartly; and those issues--never out of date--are thrust forward, without cynicism or self-righteousness, into high, strong relief. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Initially published in 1979, this is being dubbed by Overlook "the prophetic thriller." It features Islamic terrorists plotting to use passenger liners as weapons during a turn-of-the-century election year, with the front runner being a far-right businessman with ties to the energy industry. How scary is that? McCarry has a solid following. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.