The Obm: The Office of Behavioral Management And the Coming Age of Surveillance

by John Boland

The OBM is a political suspense novel about Casey Patton, dean of a private college in Arkansas, and her efforts to expose the federal Office of Behavioral Management’s secret surveillance experiments. In 2025, an era of shifting tectonic plates, spyware development, and conservative domestic policies, the Office of Behavioral Management, an outgrowth of the Patriot Act, carries out secret initiatives to spy on citizens with their new cyber-tools. In the aftermath of terrorism and earthquakes, a group of concerned citizens fight to retain their privacy. The Coalition for a Free America, founded and led by Casey Patton, leads the struggle against Dr. Weldon, head of the OBM, to expose covert domestic surveillance. In addition, the Coalition battles against America’s own apathy and fear. The conflict is waged in cyberspace and on college campuses. The story pits censorship and behavioral modification in the name of homeland security against our innate desire for civil liberties and privacy.

231 pages, Paperback

First published May 8, 2006