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A Novel Look at the Culture War
Some time ago, the fine American novelist Walter Kirn (Up in the Air, Mission to America) issued some words of wisdom that influenced my reading and writing of fiction. “Novelists know what they are doing when they make things up,” Kirn wrote. “And they are better equipped to understand current events than the people who report them because they have been trained to see the patterns and the motivations behind the surface noise.” In consequence, I tend to see the novel as a clearer time capsule than anything in mainstream or social media. And as a roadmap in the Culture War.
[I]n ‘The Washington Trail,’ I establish that Slade left the Army Rangers because of their lowered standards for female recruitment.
Take my fourth novel and first political thriller, The Washington Trail, published in September 2024, a full two months before the last election, when many thought Kamala Harris would win. The plot hinges on two Washington private detectives, Mark Slade and Neil Cork, trying to foil a progressive/Deep State/Communist Chinese conspiracy to derail presidential frontrunner Donald Trump. The heroes break the law and commit violence doing it, so a Trump loss would have sent them to prison, not to mention hurt book sales. Yet I wrote the thing in 2023, when Trump wasn’t even the Republican nominee. And I was for DeSantis.
At the time, not only had Trump been charged with four criminal counts — and getting mocked by unctuous prosecutors like Leticia James, politicians like Adam Schiff, and talking heads like John Bolton — but his opponent, actual President Joe Biden, was hailed as an unassailable dynamo. “I can’t keep up with him,” said Nancy Pelosi. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand tweeted, “The President is as sharp as ever, leading us through tough negotiations with clarity.”
Of course, reasonable people could see Biden was a zombie. I pegged him in an article here way back in 2020. And in The Washington Trail, when the detective agency’s secretary kids with Slade on the phone. “Mark, thank God you called! The President is missing! They say you’re the only one who can find him!”
“Tell them he must’ve switched coffins,” said Slade.
I knew even as I was writing the book, each day going further in an irreversible direction, that it could end up as a total waste of my increasingly finite time. That in the reasonable case of a Trump derailment, my manuscript would be laughed off the computer screen then deleted by the publisher (the modern equivalent of getting tossed in the junk pile). But I continued, because as a storyteller, I realized that the Left’s fear and loathing of Trump, should he continue to survive, would create the ultimate American drama. And I had to fictionalize it and risk the loss.
Although written a year prior, The Washington Trail takes place nine months before Election Day 2024. Trump, despite the legal and political attacks on him, is beating Biden in the polls and the favorite to win. This is driving the corrupt FBI, a Chinese spymaster, and an eco-warrior group to homicidal action. In one scene, a beautiful Hollywood actress and climate change radical tells Slade why she’ll do anything to stop Trump.
“He’ll reverse everything we’ve achieved over the last four years. Clean energy that can heal the planet — solar power, wind power, alternative food choices. Instead, there’ll be a thousand more pipelines and coal mines and cows all over the land, poisoning our air and water.”
“Cows?” Slade said.
I turned in the manuscript in February 2024. Aethon Books liked it enough to bet on a Trump victory in November and published it (like I needed any more proof I’m not in Hollywood anymore). Aethon offered me a three-book contract for two more Slade-Cork mysteries a year apart. Family losses delayed the first sequel a year, but I’m writing it now. And what a difference that year has made for realpolitik and the Culture War.
For instance, in The Washington Trail, I establish that Slade left the Army Rangers because of their lowered standards for female recruitment. “You have a problem with women in combat?” Amy asked him. “More than the Chinese will when they take us on,” said Slade.
Last month, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gave a speech to top military officers basically agreeing with Slade. “If you can’t meet male-normed combat fitness tests or maintain a disciplined appearance, you’re in the wrong profession,” Hegseth said. “Resign now.”
In my book, Neil Cork quit the FBI because of their illegal operations against Trump, even though he opposed Trump. “I didn’t vote for the man. In fact, I cheered his defeat. Then Wilcox ordered us to raid his home, telling us to turn up something, anything that would keep him from running again. A preemptive strike against the leader of the opposition, and his supporters — all 75 million of them.”
Earlier last month, former FBI Director James Comey was indicted on two counts including obstruction of justice while trying to frame Trump on the fake Russia-gate story. Approximately 250 FBI agents were recently fired for conduct unbecoming their positions — such as kneeling during the pathetic Black Lives Matter display. And Leticia James and John Bolton have both been indicted on criminal charges.
So, Walter Kirn was right. We novelists do know what we’re doing when we make things up. And by that measure, the new Slade-Cork thriller, The Camelot Trail, coming next fall, is going to be prophetic.
READ MORE from Lou Aguilar:
When the Movie Legends Die
Battling the Hollywood Hydra
Hollywood Unraveling: The Idiot Savant
Have yourselves a romantic little Christmas. Get your love interest my Yuletide romance fantasy novel, The Christmas Spirit. Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and fine bookstores everywhere.
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