Frightening Read - The Enemies Trilogy - Foreign and Domestic

I've read books of all kinds since I began reading over my mother's shoulder. The school administration at McDonough #9 in New Orleans were annoyed with my mother for having taught me to read before I entered kindergarten, but it wasn't really Mom's fault. I basically taught myself.

Recently a friend sent me a list of free books at Amazon for the Kindle. Among them I found a novel by Matthew Bracken called Castigo Cay, a slightly futuristic speculative adventure story mostly set aboard a sailing vessel in the waters off the South Florida coast ( A worthwhile read with similar themes) there was a list of the author's previous work at the end, including a trilogy that began with Foreign and Domestic, whose title comes from the oath taken by so many of us to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. 

The book is the first in what is called The Enemies Trilogy. F&D is set in the present, in the area around Washington, D.C., an area I used to know somewhat from having been stationed there twice in my service with the Army. Bracken gives you a strong sense of place, with great descriptions you feel would allow you to find all of the locations. He tells a story about a small group of ordinary people who get caught up in a plan by a small group within the BATF&E to gain favor with the administration and enhance their standing within the Federal Law Enforcement community. They do that by perverting their mission and breaking their oaths to the Constitution.

The frightening thing about this book is how plausible the conspiracy at the center of the plot is, given current events. I've had to read it in small increments because the believability of the plot tends to get my blood pressure up to dangerous levels. I can see it all happening just as Bracken has written it.

The splinter group of rogue federal cops uses the technique of "plausible culpability" to further the agenda so many in the real-world current administration have put forward, that gun owners and "constitutional nut jobs" pose a threat. They use "false-flag" operations, which lead to draconian anti-gun laws and it gets worse from there. Anyone who reads the news will see parallels and possibilities aplenty here.

Bracken creates believable, human characters, heroes and villains alike, and, unlike many male-oriented novels, writes strong female characters, equal to their male counterparts.

If you are interested in how the present increase in federal power, the strong anti-Constitution agenda of the administration, the ever-greater militarization of law enforcement, especially at the federal level might play out at worst-case-scenario levels, thus book and the two that follow, which I am eager to read, will be to your liking.

To say much more would get us into spoiler country. If you've read Foreign and Domestic and want to discuss it or comment on this blog, I am on Facebook as well as here.