A MORE PERFECT UNION
Scott Higgins thought he'd left war behind.
Retired from the shadows and determined to live quietly, he has no interest in reliving the decisions that once defined his life. But when a series of politically motivated killings shocks a nation already divided by fear and distrust, Scott is pulled back into a world he hoped never to see again.
What begins as an effort to understand the murders quickly becomes something far more dangerous.
As the implications of the attacks become clear, Scott sees the threads of a conspiracy stretching toward the highest levels of government—one fueled by ideology, vengeance, and a growing belief that democracy itself has failed.
REVIEWS
"A Plausible Scenario from a Gifted Novelist"
A gifted novelist might be able to imagine a plausible scenario set in 2028, when the same powers that should be investigating a violent plot to stop the presidential election have long ago pardoned the perpetrators. It would help if that novelist were also a lawyer with a keen sense of history and an engineer with patents who knows how drones are built and programmed.
Elliott D. Light is that novelist. His new national security thriller, A MORE PERFECT UNION, takes us through catastrophes we have already experienced to others that reasonably could lie ahead. His protagonist, a veteran of Afghanistan still plagued by an atrocity in which he was complicit, comes home as a security analyst to find a divided country in which violence is advocated and a potential disaster, funded by dark donors, is far more organized than January 6th.
We also get to know members of the US Supreme Court, by different names but recognizable types, including two aging “insufferables” and a chief justice worried about his legacy. Two of the Court’s pending decisions in this story will determine the future of the country.
What keeps us racing through these pages are our author’s elegant writing, his affection for pets and nature and gender equality, and his relentless commitment to the human capacity for conscience.
Susan Ford Wiltshire - Vanderbilt University Professor of Classics, Emerita
Author of GREECE, ROME, AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS
A More Perfect Union presents us with a seemingly unlikely plot — involving a CIA assassin acting with impunity to execute right-wing extremists bent on destroying American democracy and a Supreme Court marching along to the political will of one malignantly narcissistic man — yet no more unbelievable than the reality we are experiencing under the current regime in Washington, DC.
At the core of this spy thriller the author presents a clever legal question: if "The Truth Sayers" (as the MAGA leaders are called here) lose Congress in this fall’s mid-term elections, what constitutional shenanigans will the White House cook up to forestall Democrats from ever taking control?
Author Elliot Light is a master of dialogue and pacing, taking the reader on a rapidly evolving romp through the nine justices’ inner thoughts and sanctums as well as the exploits of a private security firm consisting of former high-ranking intelligence officers uniquely capable of tapping into international spy networks with knowledge of the intrigue being spun by the right-wing cabal.
How likely is any of this? You’ll want to judge for yourself.
"An intricate plot that will keep you guessing until the end!"
This is not the first book by Elliott Light that I’ve read, but I always enjoy them. However, A More Perfect Union might be my favorite so far. The plot was intricate and I generally couldn’t predict what would happen next, but when it did (and my heart stopped racing), it always made perfect sense. I like that the author weaves the action and consequences around the actual laws of the U.S. and the way they’ve been legally interpreted, which he understands on a level far surpassing most of us citizens. The book is set midway through 2028, with the country preparing for the elections. It wasn’t done in a political way, but several of the questions that we’re dealing with were explored in an even, rational and non-judgmental manner that I appreciated. I’m looking forward to the sequel!