The Obama Inheritance: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir

Some short story collections are eclectic. Some are ambitious. Some are utterly mad. This one is all three.

The Obama Inheritance presented writers with an intriguing hook — conspiracy theories that surrounded the Obama presidency — and offered them the opportunity to let those conspiracies blossom into curious tales of conspiracy-fueled noir.

To give you an example, the very first story in the collection involves Michelle Obama and other tall, successful women engaging in clandestine warfare and blackmail with drug-company CEOs in order to get their prices to drop. Now that is some high-octane creativity at work.

Some of these stories are laugh-out-loud funny, while others are immensely disturbing simply because you know that somewhere, someone actually believes this ridiculousness for real. That’s a humbling and horrifying thought, even as your funny bone and your common sense are entertained.

The Obama Inheritance is a collection that could only exist in the era of Donald Trump, one where even fantasy and sci-fi must bow before the unfettered lunacy of Alex Jones and other conspiracy theorists of his spittle-flecked misinformed ilk. It’s as jaw-dropping as it is headache-inducing.