Genetic Imperative

Jim Miller has written several earlier titles, including Heavy Jets, Terror on the Tundra, Terror in Appalachia, Terror in the Smokies, One Last Mission, Kentucky Weed, Vienna, Stealing Ho Chi Minh's Gold, and Counter Intelligence. Genetic Imperative is the book he says he always meant to write. A retired military and commercial pilot, he once served as director of operations for the presidential airlift wing at Andrews Air Force Base, which gives him firsthand knowledge of Air Force One. The novel imagines a hijacking of that aircraft, though unlike the film version it offers no escape pod.

Miller's work with heads of state during international crises has shown him how easily world peace can crack. The COVID-19 pandemic showed that a virus could kill enormous numbers of people, and the novel asks readers to picture a deadlier, engineered version of such a pathogen. Miller points out that some extremists would not hesitate to unleash a weapon like that, even on their own people and their own country. Their guiding principle is a basic genetic drive: protect those who are like them and destroy everyone else.

The story follows these extremists, and Miller presents it as a scenario that is frighteningly plausible.