My Fellow Americans, by Keir Graff

Chicago, a few years in the future. An unspecified terrorist attack has caused the President to cancel elections, declare military law, and beef Homeland Security up to perform random searches, warrantless arrests, and wholesale exile of ‘undesirables’. Fear and support for the security measures keep most people either unaware or supportive of the president’s programs. Jason Walker is in the former category – a freelance editor who struggles to pay the bills on his apartment, Jason is also an amateur photographer whose hobby is taking pictures of interesting architecture. But when the clerk at a photo processing shop sees his pictures, Homeland Security – or an unnamed affiliate – kidnaps, tortures, and blackmails Jason into becoming a mole for them. Based on his mother’s Lebanese heritage, he is to insinuate himself into a Lebanese cultural center and report on the people who go there. They also use him to report on the activities of a handful of people, including his girlfriend, who are supporting a self-financed presidential candidate for an as-yet-unscheduled election. After a while, though, Jason cannot tell who he is really working for, what he is really doing, and which side the good guys are on.

Graff does a good job of ratcheting up the tension, starting with a scary depiction of Jason’s torture and interrogation, then working into his growing sense of confusion and loss of any assistance or protection. Jason is unable to cope in a world of deception, and Graff keeps the reader in suspense as Jason’s inability to lie begins tripping him up. As the plot builds speed, the real dimensions of the security takeover become apparent, until Jason flees and become the target of a manhunt.

The major beef I have with this book is Graff’s insistence on using both first and last names each time he mentions a character. Thus, Jason is “Jason Walker”, his girlfriend “Gina Saraceno”, the spy “Chad Armstrong” throughout the book. This is a conscious choice, but what it is meant to signify is unclear. Still, that is a small complaint in a well-told story with frightening implications.

It isn’t in the catalog, since it isn’t coming out until October. Lucky me, I got a pre-pub copy.