Customer Reviews

Capitol Conspiracy: A Novel of Suspense

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With all that is happening in the world around us, the plot of this book is not too far-fetched. It is easily believable that the President and others in political office could be attacked for the stances they have taken. Bernhardt invites the reader to ask themselves how far we should all go in order to protect our freedoms. Is it worth giving them up to speed the process of prosecution or should we never mess with the basic doctrine of the constitution?

A political web is spun around this story as you follow Senator Kincaid. As usual he finds himself in the middle of the controversy. And once again Ben goes against the grain. But this time he goes against everyone dear to him.

For those who love the storylines involving the other characters besides Kincaid, you may be disappointed. This book focuses mainly on the Senator as he attempts to forge the nation's ideals in a time of tragedy.

Don't let that dissuade you; this is definitely worth the read. Bernhardt fills the story with his flair for twists. You'll enjoy the ending. Moreover you'll wonder how you would have voted on the proposed Constitutional Amendment. After all it may be closer to your future than you think.

PATRICK RALEY is the author of the mystery, detective novel entitled "Precedent of Justice". Find out why Publisher's Weekly calls him "the next John Grisham."

The head of Homeland Security is missing and a Senator has been killed with ricin poisoning - and his last words were: "Oklahoma City."

Meanwhile, on the anniversary of the bombing, tragedy has once again struck Oklahoma City. At a memorial service, shots are fired and the First Lady is killed along with several Senators and Secret Service men. Now, only four days after the shooting, the President is pressuring the remaining Senator from Oklahoma to support a bill that repeals the Bill of Rights in a time of national emergency. This amendment, if passed, would in effect put total control of civil rights into the hands of a Security Council headed by one person.

Ben Kincaid, the junior Senator from Oklahoma, was at the scene during the attack and his best friend now lays in a coma after saving Ben's life and that of the President. With that as his driving force, Ben agrees to support the amendment, however, his chief of staff (who is also his wife) is dead set against this proposed bill. As opposing factors to the amendment line up for battle, not everyone is convinced the attack was by foreign terrorists working alone. There are too many things pointing to help from an inside source - someone inside the government.

While Ben is making speeches and appearing before committees promoting the amendment, his wife Christine, begins her own investigation into this latest attack at Oklahoma City. Emotions and suspicious are tossed out like nets and every government agency has its own agenda in the investigations and in the outcome of the President's proposed amendment.

The story takes you from the glitz and glitter of Washington elite to the darkest and dirtiest side of the nation's Capitol: blackmail, adultery, murder and children sold for sex. In this power-engorged city, the lust for more power knows no boundaries.

This political thriller is fast-paced and intense with surprises blasting away at what you thought you had figured out.

Armchair Interviews says: Bernhardt is a master of his craft and this most recent, Capitol Conspiracy may just be his best yet.

Too bad Jimmy Stewart isn't around anymore. The character, Ben Kincaid, is a role that was made for him. In fact, he already played it in Mr. Deeds Goes to Washington. Kincaid is a young attorney with a very unsubstantial practice in Tulsa, suddenly catapulted to the nation's Capitol as an appointed Senator. As the junior Senator from the Great State of Oklahoma, no one pays much attention to him, but he has a way of getting into major situations.

At a major Presidential appearance commemorating the Oklahoma City Massacre, sniper fire kills the First Lady. Ben, of course, is present alongside the President, along with his best friend who saves their lives from a bomb underneath the Presidential limousine, but is hit by the explosion and remains comatose. The resulting furor results in the President proposing an Amendment permitting a six-person council to suspend various portions of the Bill of Rights in cases of "emergency."

The President, a Republican, asks Ben, a Democrat, to spearhead the effort to secure passage in the Senate. The House bill is a shoo-in, and given the high emotions extant, the public more than favors the measure. Various subplots play a role in moving the story forward. Will the forces of evil prevail, and the traditions and freedoms ensured by the Constitution be trampled on? Will Ben's friend survive? Will his new marriage overcome the split in the couples' opposing stance on the proposal? And so on.

"Capitol Conspiracy" is clever and entertaining, but unfortunately in pulling the various elements together, it almost becomes a potboiler. This is really too bad, because I rather enjoyed it until that point, despite the oversimplifications and somewhat wooden portrayals of many of the characters--but I suppose such descriptions are appropriate.

In William Bernhardt's CAPITOL CONSPIRACY, Ben Kincaid is still seated as the junior United States senator from Oklahoma, finishing out the previous Senator's term. He has married Christina, the love of his life, professional partner and alter ego. Jones, his computer-hacking office manager, is also on the scene. Loving, his intrepid investigator, is still rolling with the punches. And best friend Major Mike Morelli is now part of Washington's official security staff. The novel opens in Oklahoma on the site of the Oklahoma City bombing. "It was a magnificent memorial, the largest of its kind in the United States, designed to honor the fallen, the survivors, the rescuers, and everyone else whose life had been indelibly changed by the tragedy."

The President, the First Lady, senators and other luminaries are on the stage taking their seats as they wait for the speeches to begin. The security is as tight as humanly possible until an agent breaks protocol in an almost unnoticeable way. But someone does see, and that person confronts the agent, who just ignores him. Before another word can be spoken, the President makes his way to the podium. A shot breaks the silence.

In this post-9/11 world, people immediately think "terrorists." Pandemonium ensues. There's screaming, running, absolute confusion and disbelief as more shots explode, creating so much noise that the gunfire sounds like a fusillade coming down on the heads of the crowd. In a brave effort to keep the President safe, Mike Morelli is critically wounded. Ben's thoughts run from blaming himself for the current tragedy to "the attack [that] had been a nightmare. A national nightmare, true...but one he experienced first hand... his cheek still stung where the bullet had grazed him... [his most] haunting memory [was of] all those men --- dropping...before his eyes." How does one recover from witnessing and being part of such carnage?

And where in the melee is the head of Homeland Security? Why isn't he at his assigned location? Nobody could guess that a madman who calls himself "General" has tortured him to death. With his last words he whispers what General wants to know.

"The Patriot Act had granted the FBI...enhanced powers, [especially] the ability to wiretap with more leniency and to monitor private Internet activity... it was almost no time...before the FBI was using the `sneak and peek' provision...to search houses while residents were absent...or snooping into individuals' library records. Fabulous powers to have in a crisis...and dangerous powers in the wrong hands." Both the amount and sophistication of the gadgets and gizmos available to the government is awesome, and oversight depends upon who is in charge of the government and its individual parts.

Now, in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City attack, a group of senators and their henchmen propose a new level of snooping that would make warrants unnecessary and put total control for such decisions into the hands of one person. Under the guise of catching terrorists, American law would be changed into a free pass to suspend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights --- the foundation that the United States of America rests upon. One of the nefarious minds behind this idea says, "I still think anyone so opposed to this badly needed amendment must have a dark secret." On the other side, a representative from the FBI contends, "My main problem with the amendment [is that] it leaves the decision [of declaring] a national emergency, to someone who might not be impartial."

A committee hearing is called and takes place in front of an audience filled with "mostly senators, staff, friends of senators, and a few carefully chosen members of the press." The first witness is Carl Lehman, the new chief of Homeland Security. He outlines his past experience in a law and order career and speaks of his shared pride in the work that he and other law enforcement colleagues have done. "But it's no surprise to anyone that we have constantly been hamstrung by lawyers trying to get clients off on technicalities. People using the Bill of Rights as a Get Out of Jail Free card for some of the most vile criminals... the crime, the people, even the welfare of the nation, seem not to matter sometimes."

Lehman raves on, "[I]n time of great need [to be determined by whom?] we will give the law enforcement community the powers [unexplained at this point] they need to maintain domestic tranquility --- just like the Constitution says. In a perfect world, the...Bill of Rights would be absolute and [we would] not need this bill --- but we do not live in a perfect world." Lehman says that he chooses survival of the nation above the "abstract ideals" of the Founding Fathers. He ends his speech with a doomsday remark about not knowing how much time the United States has to put this amendment into play.

And so Ben Kincaid is swept up in the tide of mania that swells behind this proposal. He has always been a very cautious man who thinks through every aspect of a situation. This soul searching leads to conflict, and asking to help pass this amendment tears him apart, especially since Mike Morelli is still in a coma. What would his best friend want him to do? Would Mike expect him to add such a powerful law to the Constitution while suspending parts of the Bill of Rights?

William Bernhardt is well known for his high-powered legal thrillers. In this third novel starring Ben Kincaid as a senator, he has fashioned another suspenseful plot with just the right pace and style. As always in Bernhardt's books, nothing is as simple as it seems on the surface. He twists elements that at first may seem random, but they are not. Here he begins with a disappearance, a murder, a single shot, a person of trust who has broken protocol, a car bombing and the deaths of innocents. At first readers may wonder how he can possibly tie these together. But as the narrative unfolds, the pieces slowly fall into place. As timely as today's headlines, especially in this contentious election year, CAPITOL CONSPIRACY is both a thriller and a cautionary tale.

--- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

William Bernhardt really gave us a 'humdinger' here. I could not put this down. Whilst highly improbable and very frightening, it envelopes you from page one.
I thought the debating was brilliant and the writing and characters so real. I could see them and relate to all.
Please give us more of this caliber - its your BEST.

This was the first and will be the last Bernhardt "novel" for me. An incredibly bizarre and improbable plot with characters who have no character and an author's opinionated message (or crusade) left me with only a sincere desire to turn the last page so I could go on to something better. Thankfully I obtained this book from the local library so I did not waste my money purchasing it!

CAPITOL CONSPIRACY by William Bernhardt has two settings, Oklahoma and Washington D.C. Bernhardt's contemporary Oklahoma settings are so real it's like being set down in a particular neighborhood, being part of the action.

What kept me turning the pages of CAPITOL CONSPIRACY was the depiction of Washington shenanigans out of sight of reporters and cameras. It's revolting, and ultimately discouraging. This book was published in 2008 but it might have been written this morning. The tenor of the times is the same.

In Oklahoma City for an anniversary commemoration of the Murrah Building bombing, the President is caught squarely in the midst of an apparent terrorist attack, barely escaping with his life. Others are not so lucky, or well protected.

The country is paralyzed by shock and fear. The President calls on Congress to amend the Constitution by suspending the Bill of Rights. At the center of the action is Ben Kincaid, a newly appointed senator filling an unexpired term.

Kincaid is a low-profile Tulsa lawyer. He's married to his chief of staff who's a real firecracker. Together they negotiate the treacherous halls of Congress and the national uproar over constitutional rights. The surprise ending is a testament to greed and ambition at high levels.

CAPITOL CONSPIRACY is 16th in Bernhardt's Ben Kincaid series. Number 17, CAPITOL OFFENSE, will be released Sept. 29, and 18 in the series, CAPITOL BETRAYAL, is due out from Ballantine in March 2010. I hope to go back through the list and read some of the earlier ones.

WRITES BOOK REVIEWS: BARBARA LIPKIEN GERSHENBAUM
William Bernhardt is well known for his high-powered legal thrillers and now, in this third novel starring Ben as a Senator, he has fashioned another suspenseful plot with just the right pace and style. Ben gets caught up in the scandalous plans to rescind most of The Bill of Rights. People in the government are striving to strip the populace of their privacy and more. As panic rages in the aftermath of the First Lady's murder at the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial chaos reigns. Where is the head of HOmeland Security through all of this? And how did he let his guard down and get kidnapped and tortured to death by a man called General. These acts begin a chain of events that not only put lives at stake but also threatens to destroy The Constitution of the United States. Is General a terrorist who somehow has "gotten to" people in Congress or is he a rogue executioner working for a different agenda.
Several sub-plots add to the confusion and in-fighting. Bernhardt has written a timely tale that is suspenseful and a cautionary tale.
BARBARA LIPKIEN GERSHENBAUM

What happened to Ben and Christina? They lack susbstance in this totally improbable story which seems to have been written at top speed to cash on topical issues. Interesting sublots are tossed aside in one paragraph at the end, the sensational last minute disclosure is disposed off in a few pages with no in-depth explanation. The addition of a few really kinky "love scenes" is unpleasant without contributing anything. A good author like William Bernhardt can be forgiven one lapse, but let us hope the next book is truer to form.

William Bernhardt's latest, Capitol Conspiracy, drags on and on and on ad nauseam. The topic of Homeland Security has already been much over used as a book plot. In a few of the books it was handled well and turned out to even be interesting and in some cases entertaining reading.

Unfortunately, Bernhardt is not good enough to make a potentially dull subject come to life. This turns out to be some really dry writing that struggles on for 399 seemingly endless pages. With nothing more to enliven the story than character Ben Kincaid's marriage to the vapid Christina the story just sort of lies there and suffers a way too slow demise.

What happened to this series? Seems it used to be pretty good.