Enemies Domestic

By John DeDakis
© July 3, 2024, Speaking Volumes, LLC
ISBN-13: 979-8890221537
Print Version, 336 pages

Enemies Domestic follows Lark Chadwick through her new assignment as White House Press Secretary, a job she never wanted, but accepted anyway in order to help her friend, President Will Gannon. From the very start, her early-term pregnancy is a sore topic with at least one reporter, who makes it his mission to put her on the spot every time they meet. But the story goes far beyond tensions between reporters, and blasts into territory that shines a light on the consequences of reporters’ stories and how their words ripple out into the populace, often with unintended or unforeseen consequences.

I’ve been familiar with John DeDakis through a local writers center, where he sometimes teaches classes. What I didn’t know about him until I read this book is that he spent many years as a CNN correspondent. He’s also served as a journalist in numerous other ways: news director at NPR, reporter for NBC, and General Assignment Correspondent with CBN, where he served as White House Correspondent during the last three years of Reagan’s presidency. So when DeDakis writes a thriller focused on news correspondents in the White House, he knows what he’s talking about.

His expertise in these areas shines brightly in Enemies Domestic, a thriller that demonstrates how growing corruption among a select few in powerful government positions can spread in insidious ways until it’s almost (or already) too huge to stop. Many times, while reading, I had to shake my head and relax my shoulders; this stuff could happen. It’s all too real. We see its ilk around us every day, so much so that we’ve become inured. We don’t even notice it anymore. But DeDakis’s characters pluck the numbed strands of awareness, wake them up a bit. His words made me look around. Take notice. Once I started reading, I could not put it down.

The characters, especially Lark and Will, were relatable for me, and I imagine the setting (DC, Maryland) is realistic too. But I warn you: this is not a comfortable read. Big questions ride the pages, mostly pro-life vs. pro-choice, though there are other challenges as well, some highly political. But if you love a really good thriller, you won’t want to miss this one. Definitely recommended.