By Order of the President

After giving a speech at Gettysburg, President Henry Hampton is shot in an assassination attempt and rushed to Camp David by his fiercely protective White House chief-of-staff and friend, Irving Ambrose. News reports of the President's condition are vague, and Vice-President Laurence Atherton finds that he can get no more information than what is shown on television. In California, a down-and-out TV adman named Charlie Dresden is convinced that the President is dead and thatan elaborate hoax is being put over on the public. With the help of a former lover, now the wife of a senator, Dresden makes his way across the country, avoiding murder attempts in the process, to give the Vice-President enhanced videotapes that support his suspicions. Meanwhile, the President's recovery at Camp David stretches into months, European powers juggle their positions, the Central American situation deteriorates drastically, and the questions of who has control and who's after it remain open. Kilian, Washington columnist for the Chicago Tribune and author of The Valkyrie Project has constructed a complicated plot out of political and technological complexities, spicing the action with violence and adventureincluding a de rigueur amusement park sceneand even providing a happy ending. (September 29)