The Washington Decree

June 11, 2018
First published in Denmark in 2006, Adler-Olsen’s far-fetched political thriller plays out in a near-future Washington, D.C., where newly elected President Bruce Jansen tries to centralize power by suspending parts of the Constitution. Convinced the country is headed for ruin after his wife’s assassination, Jansen takes several measures to severely limit civil rights. Meanwhile, wealthy hotel magnate Bud Curtis, a political rival of the president, is arrested for the killing of Jansen’s wife. The arrest complicates the career of Curtis’s daughter, Doggie, who has worked for Jansen for many years. As her father’s execution date nears—the death penalty runs rampant in this milieu—Doggie abandons her White House job and sets out to prove her father’s innocence. The ponderous plot moves in ways that strain belief. Fans of the author’s long-running Department Q crime series (The Scarred Woman, etc.) won’t find much to like. Agent: Rudi Urban Rasmussen, Politiken Literary Agency (Denmark).

Originally published in 2006, this Danish political thriller now has an English translation, with Jason Culp narrating the audio edition. Former Virginia governor Bruce Jansen wins the 2008 presidential election. Having lost two wives to public assassinations, he then enacts drastic executive orders to reduce gun violence, in turn stripping away many personal freedoms. The result is, somewhat predictably, pandemonium. Culp's precise reading and taut pacing will help listeners wade through an increasingly convoluted plot. Some other blemishes--like the nauseatingly named protagonist, Doggie Curtis--are no fault of Culp's. He generally manages to flesh out the central characters, all of whom spend many years in Jansen's orbit. Culp's performance is compelling enough to recommend this audiobook, uneven and unwieldy as it may be. A.T.N. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine