Executive Action

by Richard Doyle

Jack Meade wakes in a hospital bed. The doctors tell him he has been in the sea for two days - that he is lucky to be alive. His face is so salt ravaged he barely recognises himself. He has lost nearly all his memory. All he can remember is his name. And that is when the nightmare begins. For Jack Meade is the name of the President Elect of the United States. In Washington an exact double of Meade is preparing to take the Oath of Office, a man who thought he had killed Jack, a man who has taken his wife and fooled everyone in the country including Jack's closest associates. Meade realises he has only one to escape from the hospital, go to Washington and convince his wife and colleagues that he is the President. But the Usurper is now surrounded by the might of the Secret Service and America's armed forces. He has already tried to kill Jack once. Now with all the power of the Presidency behind him, he will try to silence forever the one man who knows about the deception that has tricked the world.

Genres: Fiction

506 pages, Paperback

First published May 19, 1998

About the author

I'm a fiction writer trying to break away from typecasting. For a while I was focusing on disasters, books like Flood and Volcano - London threatened by a storm surge, an eruption-caused tsunami devastating the coast of Maine.
I could have gone on with the theme - publishers always want more of the same and Flood had made it into a movie - bit I couldn't face it. So I'm back to straight thrillers with MUTE, out now on amazon kindle. It's about a little guy taking on the big ones. Nothing earth shattering, just a simple story of a fellow who doesn't give up when threatened.
A bit about me. I'm a Brit who's spent most of his life elsewhere. I was raised in North Africa and Kuwait and I've lived in lots of countries since - USA, France, Ireland, West Indies and the UK. Hard to say which was the most fun. I married a girl who likes travelling and she's usually planning where to go next. Any suggestions welcome. We love sailing and our son is a yachtsman so a bit of water would be good.
If any of you decide to stray on to my amazon kindle entry, you'll see I've put Imperial 109 out there too. It's a novel I wrote in 1978 about a flying boat service between South Africa and America. It sold a million copies.

Reviews

[Kt · Rating 4 out of 5]

4⭐️

It’s five days before President Elect Jack Meade is to be sworn at his Inauguration in Washington DC. There’s been a lot of important people and close friends who have got him in this position, including his new bride from a whirlwind romance; but for reasons unknown Meade is now firing those closest to him and replacing them with people that hardly know him. Or is he?

For whilst the President Elect is in Washington DC, a man in Jacksonville, Florida has washed up on shore, been taken to hospital and is claiming to be Jack Meade, the President Elect. Who is this crazy man and why has escaped in desperation to get to Washington? The Secret Service are mystified by the hospital escapee and don’t believe a word he says; but as the newly sworn President continues to act so differently to how he did on the campaign trail, maybe the escapee is who he says he is?

Just who is the real Jack Meade, President of the United Sates? To find out you’re going to have to read Executive Action by Richard Doyle.

I came across this great little twisty thriller in my local second hand bookshop and was immediately taken in by the blurb; but sold when it came from a recommendation from one of my favourite authors, Chris Ryan. It had everything a great mystery should - lots of twists, turns, red herrings and the anticipation of how Doyle would bring it all together for a climatic ending - and held my interest so well I read it in one sitting, needing to know what would happen and how it would all end.

The only thing that stopped this from being a five star read for me was that only a few sentences were dedicated as to why the fake Jack Meade did what he did and it didn’t really make any sense or give any clarity to the lengths he went to to impersonate the real Jack Meade. Whist I didn’t need pages of detail, I did feel it needed a bit more than what was provided. Having said that, this is a small criticism of an otherwise excellent read that I really enjoyed.

If you like mysteries, whodunnits, thrillers, political thrillers, then Executive Action is a book that I recommend to you. It’s the first Richard Doyle book that I have read; but won’t be the last.

To play along with my book bingo and to see what else I’m reading, go to #ktbookbingo and @kt_elder on Instagram.

[Shelfarijose · Rating 4 out of 5]

US President must oust a crazy impostor from White House and regain his wife.