NEW AMERICA

An out-of-control baddie holds the US at bay—in a sequel that’s equally out of control. Jeremiah, that black-hearted worm, is back. Though FBI agent Steve Wallace had tried his top-gun best to snuff him in his debut (Jeremiah: Terrorist Prophet, 1997), the slippery devil is still with us. But it’s a different ballgame this time out; from mere deranged renegade, he’s been upgraded to rampant megalomaniac. A full-fledged Hitler wannabe, Jeremiah is now a prophet fanatically honored in his own country—New America by name. Carved out of the USA—Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas—this separatist confederacy is composed of malcontents who gorge themselves on their leader’s teachings as set forth in the “Book of the Second Jeremiah,” a primer for religious extremists, white supremacists, and haters of all stripes. But don’t think for a minute that Jeremiah’s ambitions end there. What he wants is total dominion over everything in sight, and to get it he sees nuclear blackmail as a very good thing. Obsessed as he is geopolitically, though, he’s even more fixated romantically—on Laura Delaney, erstwhile blond goddess of network TV news. So he kidnaps her, rapes her, gets her pregnant. The idea is that she—ll bear his child and perpetuate his dynasty—except that, subjected to this kind of treatment, Laura isn—t willing to buy into Jeremiah’s long-term plans. Moreover, she doesn’t like him. Nor does her husband, superhero Steve, who once again sets out to assassinate Jeremiah for the sake of world peace. Not an easy task. In addition to high security, Jeremiah has more lives than a cat, and although he may have been skinned out of a few of them by novel’s end, enough are left to keep the series going. Big, messy, and paranoid. Nightmarish stuff if you could believe a minute of it.