Term Limits

by Vince Flynn

(1997)

Publisher: Atria

What if America’s politicians were held accountable for their broken promises– and made to pay for their corruption? With a unique flair for heart-pounding dramatic tension, meshed with the technical precision of Tom Clancy, author Vince Flynn brings to life a chillingly credible scenario of Washington under siege– in a provocative, edge-of-your-seat political thriller.

In a night of shattering brutality, three of Washington’s most powerful and unscrupulous politicians have been executed with surgical precision. Their assassins, vanishing without a trace, have delivered a shocking ultimatum to the leaders of the American government: set aside petty, partisan politics and restore power to the people, or be held to deadly account. No one, they warn, is out of their reach– not even the president.

A joint FBI-CIA task force reveals that the killers are stealth experts, elite military commandos with the proven capacity to penetrate the tightest security and neutralize any target. But no one knows exactly who they are or when they will strike next. Only Michael O’Rourke, a former U.S. Marine and freshman congressman, holds a clue to the violence: a haunting incident in his own past with explosive implications for his country’s future.

Compelled by his memories and by his sense of honor, O’Rourke confides in the one woman he trusts, crusading journalist Liz Scarlatti, only to uncover hidden land mines of corruption and murder among the highest ranks of leadership. But as the casualties continue to mount, O’Rourke and Scarlatti make a terrifying discovery– an appalling truth that the American people can never know if the nation is to survive.

Delivered with the dead-on impact of a sniper’s bullet, “Term Limits” is a tour de force of authenticity and suspense, an all-too-realistic and utterly compelling vision in which the ultimate American ideal– a government of the people– is taken to a devastating extreme.