Frustrated by political obstacles to their goals of economic world domination, a group of unscrupulous American industrial tycoons secretly finance a new political party, the American Freedom Party (AFP).
The conspirators plan to use the AFP to subvert the Constitution and further their monopolistic national and global agendas. What they fail to realize is that John Gerard, their charismatic presidential candidate, plans to double-cross them and, like Hitler, become a dictator. These conspiratorial financiers create international economic, terrorist and political crises that leave the Republican and Democratic parties hopelessly divided and ineffectual. With behind-the-scenes manipulations, AFP enables their candidate to resolve these crises and gain the support of the frightened citizens of the United States.
Only three people can thwart these plots: Dr. Ritter, a psychologist who once treated the future presidential candidate, Solomon Weissman, a muckraking journalist and a third person whose identity is revealed in the climax. During hypnosis sessions, the psychopathic Gerard unknowingly reveals his plans to Dr. Ritter. Meanwhile, Weissman penetrates the financiers' New Millennium Consortium and learns of their plans. In his climb to power, Gerard arranges for the disappearance of his opponents and those familiar with his past. But the one adversary he doesn't anticipate is the only man who knows the secret behind the hobgoblin nightmares that haunt both Dr. Ritter and himself.
Excerpt
PROLOGUE
Only a year ago, I was about to get my doctorate from an Ivy League university that was going to offer me a prestigious faculty appointment. My university mentor was encouraging me to publish my dissertation as a self-help book that he thought would be a best seller. To boot, I was engaged to a wonderful woman who thought I was a fit mate. Never in my wildest imagination could I have dreamed of such good fortune.
I was also keeping a journal of my metamorphosis from an insecure graduate student into a journeyman psychologist. I intended to include as a case study a psychopath, a patient of mine, who believed he could become President of the United States. Though he would be only a footnote, I thought he'd provide a dramatic opening. Of course I didn't intend to use his real name. But now, after all that happened, everyone knows who he is.
Back then, when I tried to preserve his anonymity, I could never have imagined he would try to kill me. Nor that I would plan to assassinate him.
Professional Reviews
Kirkus Discoveries review
Jaffe, Jacob
HOBGOBLINS
iUniverse (288 pp.)
$17.95 paperback
April 21, 2006
ISBN: 0-595-38421-8
—Kirkus Discoveries
Kirkus Discoveries, VNU US Literary Group, 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 646-654-4686 fax 646-654-4706
"Paranoia and politics intertwine in this perceptive...thriller.
...At the center of the narrative are Martin Ritter, a hot-shot psychology student plagued by hidden insecurities, and his patient John Gerard, who rants under hypnosis about his plan to impose a fascist regime on America. Martin is relieved when the menacing Gerard ends treatment, then appalled when (Gerard ..resurfaces as the charismatic presidential candidate of the populist American Freedom Party. With the help of a muckraking journalist, Martin learns that the AFP is backed by a sinister “New Millenium Consortium” of billionaires that seek “a Financial Oligarchy to replace our three branches of government,” not realizing that Gerard plans to betray them and implement his own Hitler-like agenda once in power. Martin finds himself in the thick of the conspiracy, and obtains compromising documents that might derail Gerard’s career. Dr. Jaffe, a psychology professor, draws a sharply observed, often hilarious portrait of clinical psychology, as Martin and his colleagues jockey for status, subtly manipulate patients and wrestle with their own issues...Martin is an unusual and appealing hero for a political thriller. Outwardly deploying the therapist's earnest, rationalistic aplomb, inwardly bubbling with neurotic self-consciousness, seems (Martin is) like Woody Allen stuck in a remake of The Manchurian Candidate."
Compulsive Reader
The Compulsive Reader says...
[Hobgoblins is] an even-paced read loaded with twists and teeming with medical and political aspects. Dr. Jaffe has fresh ideas and sharp execution coupled with a little hilarity that makes this an enjoyable novel.
In the second book of the BetterWorld trilogy, Kiyoko and her friends continue to fight MediaCorp's schemes to control the world. But a team of ruthless mercenaries is after them, and is closing in fast.
