What if they lied, just a little?

It’s … well it doesn’t really matter what year it is. These things keep happening. Our economy is on a roll. Stock prices are up. GDP is up. National employment is up. The President’s job approval rating is near historic highs and Congress and the White House are at peace. Life is good.

But something is amiss. States report rising unemployment. Food banks report unprecedented demand. Labor strife erupts across the country as state, county, and local governments cut programs to ever-greater extents. An attempt to automate emergency call centers spawns violence after a shooting at a rally minutes from our nation’s capital and the nation is plunged into near civil war.

Our aging power grid suffers a major collapse as money-saving automation fails during the heat of summer. In a matter of hours, entire regions of the United States are without electricity.

Can any nation survive and recover from such a series of catastrophes of national magnitude? Why did the national economy disconnect so dramatically from the local? What did we miss?

Baltimore writer Clark Thomas Riley weaves a tale of intrigue and corruption, resilience and redemption in his debut novel, The Inconceivable: what if they lied just a little? Available in print and electronically in February 2014 from Amazon and Apple.

Other works by Clark Thomas Riley, Publications scheduled for 2014: Patchwork: a pioneer’s story, Dots: cancer sleuthing on the 21st century frontier, and Building the 21st Century Hobby Greenhouse: one gardener’s adventure.