Abuse of Power: A Thriller

by Michael Savage Narrated by Peter Larkin

Overview

From New York Times bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio talk-show host Michael Savage comes a high-intensity debut thriller, the story of a smeared network journalist who uncovers a chilling terrorist plot.

Jack Hatfield is a hardened former war correspondent who rose to national prominence for his insightful, provocative commentary. But after being smeared as a bigot and extremist by a radical leftist media-watchdog group, he ultimately loses his job and finds himself working in obscurity as a freelance news producer in San Francisco.

One afternoon Hatfield is on a ride-along with the SFPD bomb squad when a seemingly routine carjacking turns deadly, after police find several pounds of military-grade explosives in the jacked car. And when the FBI urges Hatfield to stay out of it, he knows he's onto something big.

This event will open up a shadowy trail that leads Hatfield from San Francisco to Tel Aviv, London, Paris, and back again, as he works with a stunning Yemeni intelligence agent and a veteran Green Beret to expose a terrorist group known as the Hand of Allah-and a plot within the highest corridors of power that will dwarf September 11th.

Abuse of Power is a lightning-paced thriller, spanning the globe from Europe and Israel to the back alleys of San Francisco's Chinatown. Jack Hatfield must make the choice between protecting his own life and investigating a terrorist cell whose goal is nothing less than total political control-no matter what the cost.

Editorial Reviews

DECEMBER 2011 - AudioFile

Jack Hatfield, a TV host and reporter shunned for stating his opinion of Muslims, covers a bombing in San Francisco. He smells a cover-up and goes on a global hunt for the truth. Narrator Peter Larkin expertly morphs into countless voices: Jack’s friends range from a crusty pal to a savvy, quick-witted woman and a young computer programmer. Villains and supporting characters are as diverse as you will find in fiction: various men from the Middle East, a Southern senator, a British agent, powerful captors, and terrified victims. Those who don’t mind their espionage filled with a strong dose of the author’s conservative politics will enjoy the story’s pace and twists. Character development is well done, and Larkin’s narration is superb as he digs into a bottomless trove of accents. M.B. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

Conservative radio host Savage, the author of Trickle Up Poverty and other nonfiction bestsellers, makes his fiction debut with a thriller sure to score a bull's-eye with its target audience, the followers of his talk program, Savage Nation. Jack Hatfield, a freelance TV producer who lost his top-rated opinion show, Truth Tellers, thanks to a liberal media smear campaign, is filming a piece on the San Francisco PD's bomb squad when a call comes in about a bomb found at the site of an auto accident. The mayor and the FBI play down a possible Arab link, and an unlikely informer puts the blame on a homegrown fringe group. Smelling a coverup, the patriotic journalist single-mindedly pursues the truth as far as Israel, Paris, and London. Meanwhile, Imam Zuabi and his Hand of Allah agents prepare a major terrorist attack. Savage pulls off some neat twists as Hatfield and a handful of amateurs fight to prevent a disaster that certain officials choose to ignore or abet. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Audio

Aimed directly at fans of his conservative talk radio show and many nonfiction books, Savage’s debut novel follows Jack Hatfield, a journalist forced from his popular radio show by a smear campaign set in motion by a powerful liberal media baron. Freelancing, Hatfield decides to investigate a car bombing in San Francisco; it appears the terrorist’s ethnicity is being covered up. His quest takes him to Tel Aviv, London, Paris, and back to California, where a terrorist cell called the Hand of Allah is plotting a West Coast 9/11. All of the elements necessary for a thriller are present—including a beautiful Yemeni secret agent and assorted venal U.S. power brokers—but Peter Larkin largely narrates with a flat, almost uninterested delivery. Larkin does handle the book’s many international accents well, and his efforts bring to life sections of dramatic dialogue and moments of heightened tension. But most of the book is read with an objectivity much too cool for the genre. When narrating a thriller, one can be a little too conservative. A St. Martin’s Press hardcover. (Sept.)

Library Journal - Audio

Best-selling author and popular talk-show host Savage offers the listener a taut political thriller. Wrongly disgraced journalist Jack Hatfield happens upon a story during a routine ride-along that turns into a globe-trotting adventure to prevent a terrorist attack bigger than September 11. While it starts slow, the plot progresses quite nicely. VERDICT While Savage is a bit heavy on political insight, he still delivers a good story. Peter Larkin's narration adds to the enjoyment, with accurate accents and pacing. [The St. Martin's hc, published in September, was a New York Times best seller; the pb, also by St. Martin's, will publish in May 2012.—Ed.]—Scott R. DiMarco, Mansfield Univ. of Pennsylvania Lib.

DECEMBER 2011 - AudioFile

Jack Hatfield, a TV host and reporter shunned for stating his opinion of Muslims, covers a bombing in San Francisco. He smells a cover-up and goes on a global hunt for the truth. Narrator Peter Larkin expertly morphs into countless voices: Jack’s friends range from a crusty pal to a savvy, quick-witted woman and a young computer programmer. Villains and supporting characters are as diverse as you will find in fiction: various men from the Middle East, a Southern senator, a British agent, powerful captors, and terrified victims. Those who don’t mind their espionage filled with a strong dose of the author’s conservative politics will enjoy the story’s pace and twists. Character development is well done, and Larkin’s narration is superb as he digs into a bottomless trove of accents. M.B. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

Routine thriller follows a journalist who elects to save the United States from terrorists—and from itself.

Plans to turn San Francisco into the next Ground Zero go awry when Jamal Thomas, a kid hoping to join a gang, hijacks a Prius. The driver gets away, but Jamal commandeers the vehicle, speeds into an intersection, collides with another car and suffers serious injury. Enter SFPD bomb-squad officer Tom Drabinsky, on a FAM trip with Jack Hatfield, who lost his gig as a right-wing radio commentator after the "liberal media elite" labeled him an "Islamaphobe." (Author Savage is a conservative talk-show host.) Drabinsnky is killed when a bomb in the car explodes, a bomb later determined to be of "military grade." Hatfield sniffs a cover-up—and a story that might put him back on top—when police arrest a group known as the "Constitutional Defense Brigade" and charge them with the bombing. Convinced an Islamic cell is up to something big, Hatfield appoints himself to uncover what's really at stake, a decision that comes as no surprise after several digressive editorial passages in which he makes clear he puts little or no trust inpolice, government and, to some extent, the church. (Frequently recalling Bible verses he finds reassuring, Hatfield makes clear he believes in some sort of divine wisdom.) After a group of men in dark suits take out Jamal, lest he describe the man driving the Prius, Hatfield obtains footage of their getaway car. Spotting a parking decal linked to Great Britain, Hatfield has no compunction about bribing a computer hacker to find out who the men are. Details in hand, he sprints to Israel and then to Great Britain to learn—and stop—what's afoot.

Ten years after 9/11, the tropes of terrorism thrillers wear thin. For fans of Fox News, Savage's right-wing POV (but little else) may lend some distinction.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169368611
Publisher:	Macmillan Audio
Publication date:	09/13/2011
Edition description:	Unabridged

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