Erne Lewis has given us a startling first novel, one that is timely and relevant to our current governmental and political situations. Whether one's sympathies and interests lie far to the right or to the left or somewhere in the less extreme middle, the characters in An Act of Self-Defense will manage to engage your interest and your emotions.

 

         The members of the small Term Limits Revolution secret organization are sincere and desperately devoted to their goal of influencing Congress to vote term limits for its members. Individual Senators and Representatives begin being assassinated. Members of the government's Department of Justice, FBI, CIA, National Security Agency, and the Secret Service are pressed into service to find and capture the TLR members.

 

         Suspense heightens as government officials close in on the suspected members. Characters supporting and opposing the Patriot Act and its subsequent enhanced interrogation methods (as well as the term limits issue) are pitched in a life-and-death  struggle, with tension building as time runs out during a Congressional vote.

 

         This fast-moving tale, with a powerful ending, would lend itself to an action-packed film. And new fans will be waiting for Erne Lewis's next book.

David Hovell, Dover, PA.