Kirkus
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A former U.S. congressman takes on the gun industry and a big slab of American politics in this entertaining satire.Israel (The Global War on Morris, 2014) served in the House of Representatives from 2001 to 2017 with a constituency on Long Island, New York, where part of his second novel takes place. When gun violence threatens the share price of Cogsworth International Arms, chairman and CEO Otis Cogsworth calls in lobbyist Sunny McCarthy to launch a bill requiring every U.S. citizen to carry a gun. The American Freedom from Fear Act allows Israel to reveal not only the grotesquerie in the legislative process, but the frightening ease with which such a measure can get passed, given enough money, political IOU's, and complicit media. The story toggles between the national circus in Washington and the local politics of the fictional village of Asabogue, tucked among the beach towns of eastern Long Island. Mayor Lois Liebowitz copes with broken streetlights and the occasional demands from the village's wealthy enclave of Billionaires Bluff, where Cogsworth lives. When she seeks to ban guns in Asabogue, Cogsworth and neighbor Jack Steele, an aging action-film star, cook up an effort to oust her in a recall vote, with the actor running for mayor. A subplot involves a local militant wacko who believes in an "Islamex plot" by which Muslims use the Mexican border to invade the U.S. Israel teases out personal ties between Lois and Sunnytwo strong women characters in a largely male castand how they may figure in an electoral battle pitting million-dollar budgets and National Rifle Association muscle against a kitchen-table campaign that starts with little more than handmade lawn signs.Israel recalls Carl Hiaasen and Christopher Buckley in their liberal bents and sense of the perniciously absurd. Will he be gunning for No. 45 in his No. 3? Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* New York congressman-turned-novelist Israel delivers a second brilliant political satire (after The Global War on Morris, 2014), this time targeting the firearms industry and the Washington political establishment. He leaves no stone unturned and no turn unstoned. He takes the same kind of snarky, tasty bite out of eastern Long Island's overdevelopment that Carl Hiaasen does from the plunder of Florida. When Chicago's mayor starts a campaign to ban handgun ownership nationwide, Otis Cogsworth, a major arms manufacturer, counters by hiring a lobbyist to convince a junior congressman and wounded veteran to introduce federal legislation requiring every American to own a gun. At the same time, Lois Leibowitz, the mayor of Asabogue, a bucolic town on Long Island that is being taken over by an invasive species (domus erectus) of oceanfront-devouring, McMansion-building city folk, passes an ordinance banning firearms in the town the same town where Cogsworth lives. His retaliation brings new depth to the expression bring out the big guns, as Asabogue finds itself under siege from heavily armed right-wing militias, rapacious national news media, Kumbaya-chanting anti-gun folks, and an alphabet soup of gunderwear -sporting pro-gun groups, including NWG (Nuns with Guns) and PWP (Priests Who Pack). Promise readers that the only way they will put this book down is when Charlton Heston's ghost pries it from their cold dead hands.--Murphy, Jane Copyright 2018 Booklist

Publishers Weekly
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Israel's second novel (following The War on Morris) is a wonderfully irreverent satire about the fractured and fractious American political and lobbying system, skewering gun nuts, politicians, and lobbyists to the left, the right, Republicans, Democrats, and everyone in between. This clever political farce exposes the extremism of the gun rights issue, both pro and con, with a smart plot, loud, noisy characters, and hilarious dialogue. When Chicago's mayor demands a federal ban on handguns and other major cities join in, the smarmy CEO of Cogsworth International Arms, Otis Cogsworth, and his lobbyist shark, Sunny McCarthy, fight back with a campaign to pass a federal law requiring all American adults to own a handgun. The battleground will be in Congress and in the small Long Island town of Asabogue, where Otis lives, as the town's feisty pro-ban mayor faces a fierce election against an aging, Otis-backed pro-gun action-movie star. Asabogue, as the symbolic epicenter of this national debate, is flooded with media wonks, simpering politicians, unruly militias, inept urban terrorists, amoral spin doctors, and snarky lobbyists for and against. Shameless greed and overwrought egos drive everyone, with Israel nailing the D.C. scene and national political hubris perfectly: empty suits with heads to match. It's a rollicking comedic trip. Agent: David Kuhn, Aevitas Creative. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Library Journal
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After his well-received satirical debut novel about the war on terrorism (The Global War on Morris), Israel takes a bead on the National Rifle Association and its quest to put a gun in every pocket in the United States. The American Freedom from Fear Act is cooked up after Chicago's mayor, facing a blizzard of gun violence, launches a national gun control campaign. Lois Leibowitz, mayor of tiny Asabogue, Long Island, wants to sign on. But one of her residents is arms industrialist Otis Cogsworth, who has his lobbyist Sunny McCarthy unleash a media hurricane to promote the new bill. Sunny is Lois's long-estranged daughter, which cranks up the tension. As a former 11-term congressman from a district very much like Asabogue, the author does not steer readers wrong in this hilarious, if disconcerting, roller-coaster ride through the American political system and its worst shibboleths. VERDICT Israel's timely satire on the deadly serious subject of gun control skillfully balances the humor and anger. Readers who enjoy Carl Hiaasen and Christopher Buckley will take pleasure in this fresh voice as he blows on the hot air arising from our political cloakrooms. [See Prepub Alert, 10/22/17.]-Barbara Conaty, Falls Church, VA © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.