Arizona journalist Matthew Holloway has released The Long Watch: An American Imperial Novel, a political thriller set in a modern United States shaped by a dramatically different decision at the nation’s founding.
The short novel introduces the reader to an America in which George Washington accepted a crown, establishing a constitutional empire that endures into the 21st century. The nation retains a Senate, courts, elections and a vigorous press, but those institutions operate alongside an imperial throne, hereditary nobility, a powerful military and an American frontier that now extends to Mars.
At the center of the story is Marcus Hale, a veteran political reporter for the Imperial Chronicle who witnesses an assassination attempt against Arch Chancellor Harlan Voss in Manhattan’s Senate Plaza.
As Hale and his AI assistant, Evie, investigate the attack, they uncover evidence that security warnings were deliberately ignored and that powerful figures may be attempting to manufacture a national crisis. The investigation draws Hale into a struggle involving military commanders, aristocratic interests, political extremists and an American Crown forced to decide whether it will defend the constitutional order or merely preserve itself.
The alternate setting allows The Long Watch to examine questions familiar to readers of modern political news, including the limits of emergency power, government secrecy, political violence, press freedom and the personal cost of exposing wrongdoing.
Holloway is a West Valley journalist, husband and father of four whose reporting and commentary focus on Arizona politics, government, faith, history and national affairs. He writes for AZ Free News, The California Globe, RedState and American Ground Radio. The Long Watch is the opening entry in Holloway’s American Imperial story.
The novella was released on Monday, July 13th, and is available for Kindle and in Paperback on Amazon.
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