Historian and best-selling writer Gideon Wolfe learns that the assassination of President Emily Forrester five years ago was digitally altered to trick the public. The widely viewed web page containing the killing is very popular but has split an already divided nation further. Gideon tries to prove his contention only to meet a group of scientists and military experts who were the professional liars behind much of the official public misinformation floating on the Net. Now they fear their web of deceit has released the nuclear genie and unless they can rebottle it, Armageddon will follow.

The concept of KILLING TIME is brilliant with the Internet serving as an information source that contains many misleading items and outright lies that seem veracious. The 1984-like story line slows down a bit due to too many cliffhangers (sort of like a nineteenth century serial novel) disjointing the pace. However, the description of the future world and the players surfing the Internet are intelligently described and provides the entertainment that makes Caleb Carr’s dark tale worth reading by futurologists.