"Holding Their Own" by Joe Nobody

"Holding Their Own" by Joe Nobody
    http://www.amazon.com/Holding-Their-Own-Story-Survival/dp/061556965X/
First book in a series of eighteen alternate history books about the economic collapse of the USA in 2015.  I reread the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback published by Prepper Press in 2011 that I bought new on Amazon in 2014.  I own the first eleven books in the series.
Um, this book was published in 2011 just as the shale oil and gas boom was really getting cranked up.  The book has crude oil at $350/barrel and gasoline at $6/gallon in 2015.  Not gonna happen due to oil well fracking in the USA so the major driver of economic collapse in the USA is invalid for the book.  That said, the book is a good story about the collapse and failure of the government in the USA.  The book is centered in Texas which makes it very interesting to me since I am a Texas resident.
The $6 gasoline was just the start.  The unemployment rises to 40% over a couple of years and then there is a terrorist chemical attack in Chicago that kills 50,000 people.  The current President of the USA nukes Iran with EMP airbursts as the sponsor of the terrorist attack. And the President of the USA also declares martial law and shuts down the interstates to stop the terrorists from moving about.
The accumulations of these cause widespread panics and shutdowns of basic services like electricity and water for large cities.  The electricity grids fail due to employees not showing up to work at the plants.  Then the refineries shutdown due to the lack of electricity.
Houston is specifically outlined here with a large fire (several square miles) due to laid off firefighters and lack of water due to lack of maintenance.  Then a large hospital in Houston enters bankruptcy and people do not show up to work due to lack of paychecks.  Then things go real bad.  This is a detailed look at the possible conditions resulting from another serious depression and serious terrorism in the USA.
The book publisher has a website at:
    https://prepperpress.com/
with a long list of apocalyptic books at:
    https://prepperpress.com/post-apocalyptic-books/
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars (928 reviews)
Lynn