King of Authority

<p><em>King of Authority</em></p><p><em>A Novel by Barry Sargent</em></p><p><strong>Power doesn't announce itself. It edits.</strong></p><p>Maximus Mogley is a brilliant junior editor buried inside New York's elite publishing world-smart enough to recognize power hungry enough to chase it and invisible enough to be underestimated.</p><p>Everything changes when an anonymous manuscript crosses his desk.</p><p>The book is electric. Dangerous. And impossible.<br>Its pages contain political secrets that haven't been made public-events that haven't even happened yet.</p><p>Within weeks the manuscript becomes a cultural phenomenon.<br>Within days its author disappears.</p><p>As Maximus rises on the back of the book's success he is drawn into a secret society of editors agents and cultural architects known only as <strong>The Curators</strong>-a group that doesn't just publish stories but engineers belief. They decide which voices rise which disappear and which narratives quietly shape the nation.</p><p>Mentored by the elegant and ruthless Vivienne Dawes Maximus learns the truth of authority:<br><strong>books are not art-they are leverage.</strong></p><p>But as journalists start asking questions his sister begins uncovering legal inconsistencies buried in the text and a powerful senator takes interest in his influence Maximus realizes his ascent was not accidental.</p><p>He was chosen.</p><p>And in a world where stories rewrite reality the price of power is never paid up front.</p><p>Dark cerebral and unflinchingly intelligent <em><strong>King of Authority</strong></em> is a prestige political thriller about ambition narrative control and the invisible forces that decide who rules-and who vanishes.</p><p><em>This is the rise.</em><br><em>The fall comes later.</em></p>