Book dossier

Wild card

by Raymond Hawkey

Wild Card, by Raymond Hawkey and Roger Bingham (1974) WILD CARD begins with a terrorist nuclear bomb exploding under the Lincoln Memorial. After he reads the overnight digest of terrorist attacks, the President drives to Dulles Airport, discussing a solution to the country's troubles with his Science Adviser. He rejects it as drastic and ridiculous. Then the newest terrorist group tries to assassinate him. Terrorists of all stripes have the nation panicked. The President decides his Science Adviser's plan to build a fake spaceship carrying faked aliens then crashing it into a residential area of Los Angeles then bawling on television that the monsters are coming, man your battle stations, followed by an instantly unified country ready for war—is not ridiculous. Wild Card is known for the scientific details used throughout the book. It thrills till the very end.