American Epitaph — James Laabs

FROM THE KIRKUS REVIEW... "A grim 2025 comes to life in James Laabs timely utopian thriller. Just over a decade into the future, the USA has succumbed to rule by a tiny, extremely wealthy fraction of the population. After winning election in fall of 2012, America's elite turned their chosen politicians into little more than puppets. Elections are rigged, states are fractured, homosexuals are institutionalized and the vast non-elite is divided between government wage-slaves and unemployed squatters.... "Laabs' eerily plausible shadow-America is an engaging environment for any reader to explore...and the story's clever twists and turns are exciting throughout. There's even a delightfully sadistic villain named Nefario, who is prone to bouts of melancholy and dreams of dictatorship and nuclear weapons... "It boasts a propulsive plot, a creepy-cool setting and a sense of genuinely high stakes. Laabs offers an imaginative, well-oiled machine of a story, with just enough connection to current tensions to keep readers involved and anxious."