The Head of the Snake: The ISIS Assault on Martha’s Vineyard, a novel by Chris Knowles. 178 pages in ebook format. Currently available as a Kindle book at Amazon.com or as a Nook book at BarnesandNoble.com.

Chris Knowles’ latest political terrorist thriller hits close to several home fronts.

Close to our home front, certainly, with a plot that centers on the abduction by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) of the president of the United States in the summer of 2015, while the president vacations on Martha’s Vineyard.

Too close, apparently, for Mr. Knowles’s print publisher, PublishAmerica, which advised him that this book, unlike its predecessors, did not meet its needs.

Its publication comes as ISIS once again takes center stage following a series of terrorist attacks in Paris.

So not only the book itself but the circumstances around it make this deftly-turned thriller a more compelling read, particularly for Island readers. More on that later in this review.

Mr. Knowles’s background has prepared him for the genre in which he works. While he has pursued a more pedestrian career in health care finance and administration on the Island for three decades, he was raised in Washington, D.C., close to the seat of power.

One of his parents worked in the intelligence community, and Mr. Knowles served a stint in military intelligence during the cold war, an era we might be forgiven for regarding as “the good old days,” considering the postmillennial behavior of al-Qaeda, ISIS, et al.

The Head of the Snake begins here on an endless summer August day in 2014, as we learn that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the caliph of ISIS, is rolling out a plan to abduct the president a year later.

Terrence Hayes is our president. He enjoys his annual Vineyard vacations. He will be completing the final year — and Vineyard vacation — of his presidency in 2015. It will be memorable.

The caliph is identifying and preparing members of North American ISIS cells who have U.S. and Canadian passports to come to the Island as seasonal workers, with a focus on getting the most menial jobs available in food services, transport, and manual labor.

Al-Baghdadi knows, as we all do, that the best intelligence on what’s happening here is available to the unnoticed tote-and-carry workers. Al-Baghdadi works out entry routes for 126 fighters turned fry cooks and drivers, and for himself and a small retinue. His plan comes to fruition in late August 2015.

President Hayes is an Iowa farm boy, and never misses the annual Ag Fair. When his 31-vehicle entourage is blocked by a two-car “accident” on Barnes Road, he is redirected to Five Corners. There, an outgoing Stop and Shop trailer truck misses the turn and blocks traffic, forcing the presidential convoy onto Lagoon Pond Road toward Skiff Avenue, where they can get to State Road and head up-Island to the fair in West Tisbury.

But there’s a blockage on Skiff, and the convoy retreats to the parking lot at the former naval hospital to turn around and head back to Five Corners. They are blocked in, a gun battle ensues, and the presidential party shelters in the abandoned hospital.

There’ll be no Ag Fair visit this year. Instead, the President and al-Baghdadi come together in the hospital for two days while the president is forced to sign agreements taking ISIS off the foreign terrorist organization list and recognizing it as a sovereign state, albeit without a country. As an added inducement to sign, al-Baghdadi confides to the president that Iraq, in fact, does have a nuclear weapon, now in place and ready to go in the Gaza Strip.

For the rest, you have to read the book. The premise, while fanciful, is believable. We know when the President is coming from all the planning chatter we hear in the spring, and the dramatic improvement in Island cell phone service in May. When he’s here, we usually know where he’ll be eating and playing, and what the catered menus will feature. It’s the nature of the place, and Mr. Knowles has captured the Island essence in this book.

We met with Mr. Knowles last Sunday to discuss terrorism today, and his experience with this book.

Is the scenario you present possible?

Could it really happen? Well, I didn’t write it until I was convinced it was plausible, that it could happen. If I needed to pull a rabbit from the hat, I wouldn’t have written it.

What’s your view on the security measure and protocols in place in this country today?

I grew up less than 3 miles from the White House, pedaled up to an open gate and walked in for the White House tours. Today Pennsylvania Avenue is blocked off for blocks. As military intelligence officers, we learned to know what the threats are and what we are prepared to do to meet them.

What’s your point of view as an author?

I was trained by the Jesuits (Georgetown and Fordham), who are half teachers, half theologians. I see myself that way — teaching by presenting factual information; the other half is to inject myself when it is appropriate.

You include voluminous detail on security assessment and protocol in Head of the Snake. Where do you get the information?

I read voraciously. A site called Defense One, for example, puts up several postings a day. But all of this information is available. If I knew any classified information, I wouldn’t publish it. May not be illegal, but it is certainly immoral, in my view.

What’s up with your publisher?

Well, I got a simple letter that said the book did not meet their current needs. Was it less well-written than my prior books they’ve published? I think it’s the best I’ve written. This book is more about character development. I tried to draw two men, the president and the caliph. I demanded of myself to put myself in the shoes of both characters, who, if not respecting each other, acknowledge a formidable foe. Their relationship becomes a chess match.

Is their decision to decline related to something else?

That’s up to anyone to read into it what they want. Based on the recent events in Paris, I can understand publishers being reluctant to publish. The company chooses to publish what they want and not to publish what they don’t want. I don’t begrudge their right to publish, though I do begrudge their judgment in this case [chuckles]. I’m making the [publishing] rounds now.