Herman's well-received Power Curve (1997) showed Madeline O'Keith Turner
inheriting the Oval Office when the president died. Now its in the early
years of the next century, when Maddy's big problem is Russia's crime
cartel, the Mafiya, and its leader, Mikhail Vashin. The vastly wealthy
Vashin, who thinks nothing of having a naked girl thrown down a 30-story
elevator shaft, has organized all the crime families and essentially
taken over the government, so that the US is dealing with criminal
political leaders.
Now all Europe seems ready to fall under the cartel's yoke. What's
worse, Yaponetz, a Russian godfather of crime doing time in a US federal
prison, is organizing a terrifically effective crime family here. What
to do with him? Maddy suggests that America trade him to Russia . . .
for a nuke. The Russians now want Poland back, but so does Germany.
War looks imminent, and the author (a former Air Force pilot) flaunts
his skills describing fighter-jet action at high altitudes. Meanwhile,
Maddy has her own problems in Washington as power forces shift beneath
her feet. Also by Richard Herman