Rubicon [Hardcover]

Lawrence Alexander (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 6, 2008

Hoping to escape the political spotlight, Bobby Hart, senator from California, declined a presidential run. But while in Germany, the idealistic young politician discovers terrifying evidence of a conspiracy to destroy democracy in America—an unthinkable plot codenamed Rubicon.

Someone important is going to die, though Hart doesn't know who, or why, or when. Only two things are clear: it will happen some time before the upcoming election—and once it does, like Caesar's army crossing the fabled river on their relentless march toward Rome, there will be no turning back.

Caught in a desperate race against death and time, Bobby Hart must now expose an insidious nightmare that threatens every man, woman, and child in America. Because Rubicon is not about stealing a presidential election—it is about stealing a country.

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Alexander's mildly entertaining debut, a political thriller, gets off to a fast start, but suffers from imagination fatigue as it settles into a predictable course. Soon after Sen. Bobby Hart, a rising California Democrat, gets word that terrorists are planning to strike on American soil as the presidential race heats up, the killings, code-named Rubicon, begin. The Democratic nominee falls victim to a suicide bomber in Los Angeles; the leading Republican suffers the same fate in Atlanta. Doggedly and almost single-handedly, Hart forages around until he figures out that Rubicon is not the work of Islamic extremists. Blatant similarities between the book's Republican administration and the current Bush administration may irk even hardcore Democrats, while a subplot involving Hart's emotionally fragile wife back in California verges on the silly. The story limps to the finish with a tedious courtroom scene. (May)
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Review

“Every American of voting age should read this book.” (www.curledup.com )

“Entertaining...gets off to a fast start.” (Publishers Weekly )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (May 6, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061456403
• ISBN-13: 978-0061456404
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,969,034 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

85 of 96 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Will Bore Even Bush Haters, May 13, 2008

By 

Stephen M. Bainbridge "www.professorbainbridg... (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rubicon (Hardcover)

As I wrote on my blog ([...]), what the publisher's blurb doesn't tell you is that this isn't so much a novel as it is a pastiche of left-wing. nut-job conspiracy theories that might easily have been ripped from Daily Kos diary pages.

Put another way, Rubicon is a thinly fictionalized version of Bush Derangement Syndrome wish fulfillment, the gist of which is that an unnamed vice president (obviously Cheney from the descriptions) creates an intelligence network to provide data supporting whatever the Administration wants and then hatches a plot to maintain the unnamed president (equally obviously Bush) in office indefinitely.

Even my more liberal readers probably won't like it. There's zero suspense, as you can figure out where the plot's going (in broad scope) by the end of the second chapter. The writing and plotting are subordinated to making every possible political point in the left's indictment of President Bush.

As one of my readers in fact commented:

"Rubicon, Hart remembers, is the river Caesar crossed with his army when he decided to seize power in Rome. For Caesar it meant that there was no turning back for a republic on its way to becoming an empire. But crossing the Rubicon meant the beginning of an era in Rome. Could it mean the end of something else today?"

This is just painfully bad writing. If you think your readers are too uneducated to appreciate the historical origin and meaning of the phrase "crossing the Rubicon" then avoid using it.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone who votes should read this, January 21, 2009

By 

Patricia Cogswell (Michigan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rubicon (Hardcover)

I just finished Rubicon and it is one of the best books I have read. I had to keep reminding myself it was fiction, and yet while reading it, I had to see some similarities in the last eight years of our political times. It was fiction yet I think all people need to read it and truly think how fear based politics could lead to a government controlled society. The book deserves a place in debating and discussing it. It also will probably give a people a lot to think about when they vote in the future.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Enjoyable Political Thriller, September 3, 2008

By 

George Webster, Ph.D., (Orlando, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Rubicon (Hardcover)

Since they are writing fiction, novelists have the option of choosing any setting they wish. The White House is a frequent location (Remember the novels of Eleanor Roosevelt and Margaret Truman, for example?), and the Bush-Cheney preoccupation with secrecy makes their White House a natural for a thriller. And it is a fact that Bush-Cheney have pushed executive privilege very far. With that said, Lawrence Alexander has written a fascinating story of an attempt by the occupants of the White House to take over the government. His protagonists are Democratic Senator Robert Hart of California and Republican Senator Charles Ryan of Michigan. Hart learns of Rubicon, code name for a secret plan that turns out to involve murder of presidential candidates just before the election in order to postpone it indefinitely. The bad guys play for keeps, and a string of murders follow and lead to a thriller of a climax. This is a nice, topical novel and is certainly enjoyable.