Touching on an issue never tackled before, Emanuele F. Portolese pens a page-turning, contemporary political thriller that highlights the one hour each year when America is most vulnerable to nuclear attack and points to a major weakness in the nation’s line of presidential succession, both of which could one day become our worst nightmare.

In an instant, the three branches of government are eliminated in a daring nuclear strike during the State of the Union Address. National Security Advisor, Barry Dipaula, and a small group of men and women inside the White House must secretly lead the country in a painstaking process of choosing new leadership within a critical eighteen hours following the explosion, and with no help from the US Constitution. During the tense overnight hours filled with international deception and intrigue, Dipaula struggles to bring order out of chaos and contain a renegade general determined to take control of the country.

The reader is introduced to the world of international espionage and taken in and out of shadowy meetings at the Kremlin --- where a conspiracy threatens to push the world into a nuclear holocaust.

From one angle, this novel presents an action-packed, richly-set, masterfully-plotted thriller that captures the reader until the final page is turned. From another, it embodies the voice of uncertainty of a humanity living in the nuclear age. Portolese’s rich depiction of the return of hard-liners in Russia, the threat of international terrorism, and proliferation of nuclear weapons gives this story an ominously prophetic, frightening dimension. He raises vital questions of national and international significance, while stressing a strong sense of urgency in the need to repair a critical weakness in the US Constitution’s line of presidential succession. A must read for any political thriller buff and for all members of the US Congress who have the ultimate responsibility for repairing this critical weakness in the constitution of the United States.

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