When Malcolm Hill, a black eighteen-year-old voting rights worker, is arrested for murder, white congressman Chase Brevard of Massachusetts finds his life transformed in a single moment by the appearance of Malcolm's photo on the news, enveloping him, Malcolm, and Malcolm's mother in a media firestorm that threatens their lives.

"Victoria Emerson is a congressional member of the U.S. House of Representatives for the state of West Virginia. Her aspirations have always been to help her community and to avoid the ambitious power plays of her peers in Washington D.C. Then Major Joseph McCrea appears on her doorstep and uses the code phrase Crimson Phoenix, meaning this is not a drill. The United States is on the verge of nuclear war. Victoria must accompany McCrea to a secure...

"They call it Hell Day--a world war that lasted less than twenty-four hours. Nations unleashed weapons that destroyed more than a century's worth of technology. Those who survived must live as their ancestors did, off a land ruled by the whims of nature. One-time congressional representative Victoria Emerson has become the new leader of the small town of Ortho, West Virginia. She has been struggling to provide food and shelter for the town's inhabitants,...