Political Thriller
Brothers: a novel of political intrigue and family turmoil.
Brothers is a fast paced political thriller. A modern-day story of Cain and Abel that asks the question, ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ The answer depends on which brother is asking the question and the women they encounter.
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Speaker of the House or Representatives Gianni Simonelli is a second-generation New York Italian American hell bent on not being associated with the Mafia. The problem is his brother is a member of a New York crime family.
On the Inauguration Day, the newly elected President steps to the podium to address the nation and is shot and killed by the Secret Service agent assigned to protect him . Reeling from the assassination Gianni is called upon to help stabilize the administration.
Someone identified as the ‘Emperor’ leads a domestic terror organization known as VIPER that has infiltrated America’s national security agencies to gain control of its military power and wealth. With evidence the Secret Service and FBI may be part of VIPER, Gianni turns to CIA Director Jill Shelton to find out who’s behind the insurrection. As events spiral out of control, Gianni is left with no alternative but to seek help from his estranged brother Mario.
When the Mafia strikes VIPER in a brutal but effective way to help save the democracy from being overthrown, Gianni and Shelton face the real possibility collaborating with the Mafia could result in them becoming crime family puppets.
Excerpt
It is a bitter cold, twenty-five-degree, white January day
in Washington
D.C. Not just any snowy winter day. Today is January 20th,
inauguration
day. At noon, my brother Governor Brandon Alan Gray will
take the
oath of office to become President of the United States of
America.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous. He is Governor of
Illinois, I’m
Governor of Florida. I also wanted to run for President, but
the
Republican Party fell in love with my brother’s charismatic,
happy talk
line of bullshit. He makes everyone smile, feel good, the
perfect party
boy and party candidate. I’m a policy wonk. Apparently,
voters want
their president to be funny, full of warm fuzzy slogans
rather than
smart, issue oriented and realistic.
Brandon Alan Gray, BAG, as our family and friends call him,
won what turned out to be one of the most hotly contested
races in
American presidential history. And the rub is, he won
because of me.
He lost the popular vote to Vice President Gorden Agee, but
thanks
to me, Florida Governor Michael Evan Gray, or as our family
and
friends call me, MEG, and Florida’s fifty-seven thousand
vote margin
of victory, I helped him win, he won 271 electoral college
votes, one
more than necessary to be elected president. BAG would have
you believe
he won on his own. Do I sound pissed, unappreciated,
jealous?
Fuck yes.
Prior to his election, the press called us “pretty and
smart.” Guess
who’s smart? Now with his election and my supposed election
to
president eight years from now, we are referred to as the
Gray Dynasty.
The Democrats like to say we are more shady than gray.
Democrats like to say we are more shady than gray.
I’m sure my folks are proud to have both of their sons be
governors
of two of the nation’s largest states. But when BAG and I
simultaneously
announced plans to both run for president, my father told me
I should
wait. “This is BAG’s time.” He told me I should wait eight
years so I
could build on what BAG accomplished. Then, to make matters
worse,
he told me if we ran against each other in the primary, I’d
lose. Thanks
Dad…I really appreciate the show of confidence. Now my
brother is
not only my father’s favorite son, he’s also the party’s
favorite son.
I’m making myself mad just thinking about all this shit
again. So
yes, I’m pretty fucking jealous of my brother. My
consolation prize is
that I’m here. Apparently, my payback for helping him win
was the big
deal he made about how he wanted me to sit on the inaugural
platform
with my parents.
So here I sit, along with 1600 other people. The difference
between
me and the others is they’re all excited to watch the
proceedings.
I’m just pretending. In addition to the incoming president
and vice
president, I’m surrounded by nearly all the members of
Congress, the
Supreme Court, Joint Chiefs, governors and former presidents
and
vice presidents.
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