STUART ARCHER COHEN lives in Juneau, Alaska, with his wife and two sons. He owns Invisible World, an international company importing wool, silk, alpaca, and cashmere from Asia and South America. His previous two novels,Invisible World and 17 Stone Angels, have been translated into ten languages. His extensive travels in Latin America provided part of the research and background for this book.
"Read it quick, while it's still fiction." --David Maine, author of The Preservationist and Monster, 1959
An audible gasp of surprise is heard in the background of the camera, the picture wiggles slightly as the blast wave ripples through the earth, a wall of expanding smoke and a dull boom as the sound wave reaches the microphone. A general collapse sets in at the front of the building facing the camera: the facade slides down into the smoke like a calving glacier in a nature film... We've just outwitted the baddest security outfit on the planet, and millions of dollars of carefully purchased influence has been blown away in three seconds. We can do this, I'm thinking. We can really do this.
CEO and Washington D.C. insider James Sands has made billions by privatizing bankrupt municipal water supplies, but his command of a dwindling resource infuriates citizen and environmental groups. When his partner is assassinated by the shadowy Army of the Republic, Sands begins to lose control of his company and his life. Desperate to save his empire, he turns to Whitehall Security, the massive private intelligence firm with far-reaching political connections. For a steep monthly fee, Whitehall will hunt down and destroy the enemies of Sands' enterprise, and disrupt any civil organizations that still oppose him.
Meanwhile, in Seattle, a guerilla named Lando leads The Army of the Republic on a dangerous campaign against the alliance of big business and government. Charismatic, cunning, and driven, Lando is obsessed with the idea of saving the country from itself, not matter what. Lando's reluctant ally is a savvy political organizer Emily Cortwright, coordinator of a network of civil action groups that seek to inspire a mass movement powerful enough to overthrow the corrupt ruling party. But when peaceful public protests quickly give way to violence, Lando, Emily, and James Sands become lost in a welter of assumed identities and conflicting loyalties. With increasing intensity, rife with secret lives, deadly compromises, and false identities, all of them struggle to both redeem and destroy the people they love most.
Powerful, disturbing, and unforgettable, The Army of the Republic is a brilliant novel about what it means to live in a democracy.
