“Executive Order” eBook was published in 2017 and was written by Max Allan Collins (http://www.maxallancollins.com/) with Matthew V. Clemmens (http://matthewclemens.com). Mr. Collins has authored or co-authored well more than 150 novels as well as short stories and comics. Mr. Clemmens has published 25+ novels, and comics. This is the third novel in their “Reeder and Rogers” series.

I categorize this novel as ‘R’ because it contains scenes of Violence. The story is set mostly in the contemporary Washington D.C. area. The primary characters are former Secret Service agent Joe Reeder and FBI Special Situations Task Force leader Patti Rogers.

Four CIA agents are killed in Eastern Europe. The Secretary of the Interior dies from apparent allergic shock. Reeder, a close friend of the deceased Secretary, asks Rogers to look into the death. Reeded is asked by the President to investigate why the CIA agents were in the path of danger when the President had given specific orders to keep people out of the Russian hot zone.

Reeder, Rogers and their small team are soon in the cross hairs of a group of wealthy and powerful Americans who want to put America “back on track”. The group will stop at nothing to see their very conservative goals achieved. A few Americans being sacrificed to achieve their desired ends is worth the price.

I thoroughly enjoyed the 7 hours I spent reading this 318 page Thriller. Even though there are two prior books in the series, this novel reads well on its own. I liked the characters and the plot. The fact that significant characters die in the novel is unusual. The cover art is OK. I give this novel a 5 out of 5.

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Four CIA agents are caught in a border incident in Eastern Europe, but why and who sent them there? The President did not authorise the mission and the Secretary of the Interior is murdered, what is happening? This is a very fast paced exciting political thriller full of conspiracy and misguided patriotic nonsense that seems to only exist in America. Reeder and Rogers are old partners who suspect something is awry when their separate cases appear to be connected, and Reeder who is hired directly by the President is very quickly targeted for elimination by an unknown group. The race is on for the attackers to be identified and neutralised. Throughout the book the author maintains the pace, action and the easy to read writing style. Everything is straight forward with no jumping back in time or dream sequences, it is my type of book, a pleasure to read. Recommended.

Exuctive Orders
By Max Allan Collins

Reviewed by Heath Henwood
www.books-reviewed.weebly.com

Executive Orders is the third in a series featuring ex–Secret Service agent Joe Reeder and FBI Special Situations Task Force leader Patti Rogers. As expected they are thrust into personal danger as a dangerous conspiracy comes into play.

Starting with the death of four soldiers, quickly followed by government officials and CIA agents, the questions are asked who is behind the conspiracy and who will be next – the president?

The book is past paced, with plenty of action. The characters lack a depth, but that is quickly forgiven in what is an action genre, rather than drama.

Collins has provided an easy to read action book, that will keep people happy that there are still good guys out there.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing a review copy in return for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

I loved this book. It read like something out of the newspaper.. i hope there is a 4th one

Published by Thomas & Mercer on April 11, 2017

Executive Order is the last of a trilogy involving largely unrelated stories that focus on the three branches of government. The first two are Supreme Justice and Fate of the Union.

I’m not generally a fan of “massive conspiracy of hidden government employees in all branches of government who plan an overthrow” novels, unless they were written decades ago by Robert Ludlum or Fredrick Forsythe. The subgenre has pretty well run its course and it is increasingly difficult to believe that the self-proclaimed “patriots” who would engage in such a conspiracy are capable of ordering lunch at a drive-thru, much less organizing hundreds of conspirators at the highest levels of government (and keeping it all a secret). Executive Order isn’t a particularly plausible conspiracy novel, for exactly those reasons, but I enjoyed it anyway.

In 2031, the Russians are threatening to invade Azbekistan and the CIA has sent four operatives to watch. They get caught in a firefight, which cheeses off President Harrison, who ordered the CIA not to send operatives into the potential war zone. Harrison wants to know who violated his orders by sending CIA operatives to die.

The answer involves a conspiracy to provoke a war with Russian on the ground that Harrison is a “tepid” president who will not take action unless he is forced to do so by right-thinking patriots who do not feel bound by the constraints of democracy or morality. To that extent, the novel has political overtones and might not be appreciated by readers who believe that defending freedom means taking it away from everyone they don’t like.

Realizing he can’t trust the CIA director or the military, the president asks Joe Reeder to find out who would be so foolish as to want to start a needless war with Russia. Meanwhile, Reeder believes that the Secretary of the Interior, who died of a food allergy, was murdered. He passes that tip along to Patti Rogers, who needs to find and solve a high-profile crime to assure that her elite FBI unit will continue to be funded.

With that background established, Reeder and Rogers and a handful of good guys begin an action-filled race to learn the truth before full-scale war breaks out. The plot isn’t special — it’s a little late in the day for a conspiracy novel to feel special, unless it contains original elements that Executive Order lacks — but it moves quickly, the action scenes are mostly credible, and the Reeder/Rogers team is an easy one to like.

Sometimes a novel that requires a small number of heroic figures to defeat overwhelming numbers of adversaries with military training are fun and sometimes they’re preposterous. Executive Order is both. My “aw, c’mon” reaction as Reeder breaches some of the world’s toughest security was stifled a bit when Max Allan Collins later provided a plausible explanation for Reeder’s success. The explanation only makes the whole scenario slightly less preposterous, but the book is still fun. Executive Order stretched my willingness to suspend disbelief, but in the end, I enjoyed the story.

RECOMMENDED

Max Allan Collins is a writer who gets my attention. I am glad that NetGalley provided me an ARC of Executive Order, which I read with interest. I'd hate to think that so many top feds would in reality sell out their country, but it makes for interesting reading. A lot happens in this novel, and the authors are more concerned with the plot than the writing. I'll forgive them for that as I did enjoy the book.

Executive Order is a current political thriller. Though some of the story appears to be totally unrealistic parts reflect the current mood of our country. The story is interesting and exciting.
I though adding quotes from past presidents makes the book special.

Action? You want action? This book starts out with four of the top CIA agents in an area between two countries unknown to them that they are about to start a war. They can see tanks and other military vehicles from both countries on either side of them. However they are just sitting there. All of a sudden they start moving towards the agents and then Russian paratroopers start descending from the skies above. The war is starting and the agents are caught in the middle. They are, of course, caught in the middle and killed. No one in America knows that they are there. The head of the CIA does not know they are there. They president has ordered that no one should be there. Why are they there? No one seems to know. What is going on.

The Secretary of the Interior is suddenly dead. She has ate a sandwich that has sesame in it. She's allergic to sesame. Is it murder or just a coincidence?

This just the start of what's going on in this book. The president calls in Joe Reeder to help figure out what exactly is going on.

The action only picks up from here.

This is a book you definitely don't want to start reading at bedtime. I had to stop reading the book right in the middle of the best part and I was not happy. I went back and started again just so I could get my heart pumping and into it. Because, believe me, that's exactly what happened when I was reading this book.

I read number 2 in the series of this book and just like this book found it outstanding. A great read that I did not want to put down. The pages just by. The action was continuous. I was so into this book. While the ending did tie up everything, I still did not want it to end.

The characters of Reeder and Rogers are very likeable. They work well together and their relationship is more like brother and sister. I like that. The author did a great job with all the action that was going on in the book and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thanks to Thomas & Mercer for approving my request and to Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest unbiased review.

Executive Order is the third excellent political thriller in the Reeder and Rogers series written by author Max Allan Collins. Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for the advance copy.

This cornucopia of political intrigue is the latest from the team of Collins and Clemens that will knock your socks off. Something nefarious is afoot when CIA agents and a cabinet member are killed, it will take an executive order from the president for Reeder and Rogers to do what they do best. . .eliminate the enemies.

Once again, this team has delivered on its previous merit, a fast-paced, action packed and riveting drama that quickly became a page turner as this book was hard to put down. The narrative was visually descriptive making the exploits leap off the pages as the story flowed from scene to scene causing a mad adrenaline rush as I had to know how this was all going to play out. The authors did a great job in staging this multi-plot story with key maneuvers, including that one comical moment from an unlikely source, and a few strategically placed incidences that led to the heightened suspenseful nature of that final push towards an explosively climatic finale. This is the best book in this grippingly captivating thriller and I can't wait for the next adventures with Reeder, Rogers and their illustrious friends.