ASH WEDNESDAY is a near-future neo-noir thriller depicting a world in which China, as the principal holder of American government debt, has gained effective political control of a prostrated United States.

A recent constitutional amendment has been passed that, among other things, suspends the first ten. Trial is by secret tribunal and there is no such thing as habeas corpus—the authorities detain whom they choose, as they please. The US armed forces, deemed too expensive for a bankrupt nation, have been dissolved and the equipment transferred to China to help offset the national debt. The Chinese military is now responsible for America’s security. All electronic communication is routed through Chinese servers and is subject to surveillance—an unguarded comment triggering a keyword alert will soon have the Chinese version of the Gestapo knocking at the door. Regulating this changed reality is the Corporation for Collateral Oversight, headquartered in the former Las Vegas, now renamed Nuevo Shanghai, where bounty hunter Nicholas Jarrow suddenly becomes entangled with the new regime.

Nick Jarrow is framed for murder—a clumsy frame but good enough to blackmail him into hunting down Zara Berenova, a woman he once loved, to earn a reprieve. Zara stole a set of blueprints, a theft that threatens the prevailing power, and Jarrow is given a week to find her. Watching him—nominally a partner, actually a guard to good behavior—is the enigmatic Hyacinth Lee, an imperturbable and unforgiving representative of the authorities who is not quite able to disguise her desire that Jarrow fall flat on his face.


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