A Time To Stand [NOOK Book]

Overview

Tea Party rallies. Armed militia resurgence. Anti-government extremists. Even talk of secession.

As much as these forces seem ripped straight from current headlines, they essentially form the perfect storm in Jerry Oliver's fictional thriller entitled A Time to Stand.

This riveting book reflects Oliver's eerily prescient account of a small town in Oklahoma that ignites a new revolution of epic proportions.

The first chapter, set in the near future, introduces us to the newly elected and highly popular mayor of Temple, Oklahoma, which - like most of the country - has been hit hard by recession and resulting layoffs. The good mayor has found a new and fulfilling life in his attempts to breathe new life back into this friendly little town.

In his first few weeks, the mayor had already set up a Bingo parlor, bringing a bit more cash flow into town. He now has plans for working with the Oklahoma Department of Commerce to bring more jobs, and he's cajoled a manufacturing company in California to relocate to Temple. But suddenly, he finds himself confronted by federal government agencies - which bring his plans to a sudden halt.

The mayor's first encounter with bureaucratic red tape starts when the Environmental Protection Agency quashes the prospect of the manufacturing company moving to Temple - a promise he has made to the residents. The EPA cites the existence of asbestos in a broom closet, and then imposes exorbitant and impossible mandates for a solution. And so begins the town's disgruntlement at big government, and rumblings of individual citizens banding together to advance their moral and ethical values. With uncanny foreshadowing, many of those angry citizens now brandish firearms.

Not one to let obstacles stand in his way, the mayor tries to employ the power of Oklahoma's U.S. senator, to no avail. Thanks in large measure to an eager newspaper reporter with an eagle eye for a good story, word of the unrest in Temple, Oklahoma, spreads quickly throughout the nation. What started as dissatisfaction in a small community quickly becomes a focus of the federal government.

Inflated egos, political expediency, and even jealousy among government agencies and the administration create a political vacuum that is quickly filled with deception, backroom deals, and conspiracy theories. Most citizens come to believe the government is run by a few big interests and politicians with an eye toward the next election, rather than the interests of We the People.

Militias, from around the country, get swept up in the tales from Temple, making it the perfect battle cry for a citizenry eager to take its government back. When the situation grows to a fevered pitch, the president calls in the troops and the FBI. But the CIA has its own agenda.

An inevitable showdown ensues with haunting echoes of the siege of Waco in 1993. The story gathers momentum and flows at breakneck pace until the end, which brings a surprising twist and leaves the reader hungry for a sequel.