Get It--or Else

This past April, Atlantic Monthly Press released a frightening and unusual thriller called Ultimatum, by a British physician writing under the pseudonym Matthew Glass.

My son, who operates a non-profit company called CALCEF (California Clean Energy Fund), read a review of Ultimatum in The Economist, and because of its subject matter bought an Advance Review Copy from AbeBooks. He was immediately gripped--as was I when I began to read the same novel on my new Kindle.

This book is set in 2032, when a new Democratic president is elected after years of unemployment, growing public anger, and failed environmental promises by a Republican who sounds very much like George W. Bush. Shortly after his election, the Democrat is summoned by the outgoing president to a private meeting. There he receives the news that greenhouse gas emissions have begun to increase at an alarming rate. The Republican chief executive and his aides have tried to open secret negotiations with China, the world’s worst polluter of the atmosphere, but the Chinese government wants to wait on those until the new president finally takes office.

To put it simply, Ultimatum is an amazing piece of work, a
political thriller that is unusually full of both believable politics and genuine storytelling thrills.

So why in the world has this book received so little notice since its original publication? There have been no reviews in either The New York Times or the Los Angeles Times, and Ultimatum’s sales ranking on Amazon is lower than a Philly fan’s spirits.

Do yourself a favor and find a copy of this most worthy thriller. It’s available in a Kindle version, a few copies can be found at BookFinder, and a paperback edition is due out in February. Now you know why it’s worth reading.