cover image America's Fool: Las Vegas & the End of the World

America's Fool: Las Vegas & the End of the World

Jay Amberg. Amika Press, $17.95 paper (400p) ISBN 978-0-9708416-7-4

Don't be misled by this thriller's dedication to "all Americans, particularly Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert." There's nothing in Amberg's latest reminiscent of those political satirists. Instead, the author presents a tired formula%E2%80%94an innocent caught up in a terrorist plot%E2%80%94without injecting it with anything fresh. TV journalist Andrew Wright has a regular, award-winning segment called "The Wright Stuff" on Good Morning America. While in Nevada to film a series of stories titled "The Fight to Save Vegas," he's trapped in a canyon during a hailstorm. Entering a cave to shield himself from the elements, he stumbles upon some metal canisters, then knocked out. Before long, the reader is introduced to a religious fanatic opposed to American liberals and the "Alien Usurper" who runs the government. The ensuing sequences%E2%80%94brushes with death, narrow escapes aided by heavy-handed contrivances%E2%80%94are all too familiar to engage readers or distinguish Amberg's thriller from the pack.