Search - Hidden Empire (Empire, Bk 2)

Excellent! Orson Scott Card can always tell a story in a seamless manner that makes you just slip into the world and not even notice that you are reading. Unlike most of his works this is not fantasy, and only a tiny bit Sci-Fi. (Realistically believable future inventions like super body armor) It posits a near future world in a crisis and a handful of specially trained, politically savvy sort of "heroes" trying to do their best to keep the US alive and well and true to her roots.