Home
/
Fiction
/
Executive Action
Executive Action
Jan 17, 2026 10:09 PM

Author:Richard Doyle

Executive Action

Jack Meade wakes in a hospital bed. The doctors tell him he has been in the sea for two days - that he is lucky to be alive. His face is so salt ravaged he barely recognises himself. He has lost nearly all his memory. All he can remember is his name. And that is when the nightmare begins. For Jack Meade is the name of the President Elect of the United States. In Washington an exact double of Meade is preparing to take the Oath of Office, a man who thought he had killed Jack, a man who has taken his wife and fooled everyone in the country including Jack's closest associates. Meade realises he has only one option: to escape from the hospital, go to Washington and convince his wife and colleagues that he is the President. But the Usurper is now surrounded by the might of the Secret Service and America's armed forces. He has already tried to kill Jack once. Now with all the power of the Presidency behind him, he will try to silence forever the one man who knows about the deception that has tricked the world.

Reviews

[Winslow] is an excellent crime writer. He writes in the simplest, clearest, most spare way of anybody I’ve read. He’s been honing it for years.

—— Evening Standard

Packing more of an emotional heft than Savages, it’s written in the leanest prose possible, with a single-word paragraph being nothing unusual but managing to say more than you’d expect.

—— Alastair Mabbot , Herald

A brilliant, hypnotic novel…A considerably more ambitious book than Savages, seeking to map out not only the history of Savages’ weird love triangle, but also to cast a panoramic eye over the whole history of the drug trade in California from the 1960s onwards. And Winslow fulfils those ambitions fantastically well, with a stylistic swagger and bucketloads of empathy to go with a scintillating, perfectly executed crime-novel plotDelivered in the sleekest, most sinewy prose you’re ever likely to read. At times, The Kings of Cool verges on a kind of steel-tipped poetry, providing flashes of insight from perfectly carved sentences. It is a simply stunning novel.

—— Doug Johnstone , Independent on Sunday

An epic prequel to Don Winslow's Savages . . . Winslow writes the kind of books that Tarantino might- if he had a heart.

—— Julia Handford , The Telegraph

American author Don Winslow is so good at capturing LA slacker speak…[His books] are always superb and The Kings of Cool – a new prequel to the brilliant Savages may be his best yet

—— The Sun

Peter Stenson has done the near impossible in delivering a savage fire-storm of a page-turner while also enabling a hard and earnest look at addiction and love. I tore through Fiend with the crazed fervor of an addict, but like all great stories these characters lingered in my thoughts long after I turned the last beautiful and brutal page.

—— Alan Heathcock, author of Volt

With a pared down snappy writing style, Fiend opens an exciting new chapter for modern horror.

—— Big Issue in the North

There is something witty or striking on almost every page

—— Mail on Sunday

Martin Amis's new novel shows a regathering of his artistic energies

—— Guardian

The buzzing sense of fresh, limitless erotic licence is captured brilliantly...he is beginning to write with Old Master assurance on the important subjects... If Amis keeps writing like this about death, he can still prove everyone wrong

—— The Times

The recent death of Iain Banks left a gaping hole in contemporary literature, but nowhere was the loss felt more than in his native Scotland. Banks took ordinary situations and rendered them extraordinary; a talent that fellow Scot Sue Peebles, whose first novel won both the Scottish and Saltire book awards, shares in spades… The "sacred geometry" of ageing and the timeless measuring out of love are what sustain this subtle, beautiful book.

—— Catherine Taylor , Guardian

Deeply humane tale of memory, loss and the struggle to understand a family’s past… It’s a novel of generous warmth

—— Ben Felsenburg , Metro Herald

A beautiful, brilliant novel destined to cement Sue's place as one of the leading lights of the Scottish literary scene

—— Waterstones

Peebles' keen eye for social observation adds a comic touch to the narrative, expertly showing how black humour is used in bleak times.

—— Rowena McIntosh , The Skinny

Peebles writes poetic prose, capturing Aggie's imaginative character and her need to find meaning in the puzzle of circumstances she finds herself in. The insight into dementia and its impact upon a family is poignant, with Aggie desperate to recapture the history of a beloved Gran who is disappearing in front of her eyes. The novel strongly evokes the Scottish countryside, its link to the past and the secrets it keeps. The story may be a slow burner, but keep going because its gentle pace builds up to a satisfying conclusion

—— Penny Batchelor , We Love This Book
Comments
Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdbook.com All Rights Reserved