The Whisper of the Axe — Richard Condon

For the sake of vengeance, a woman plots to destroy the US government

It's June 1976, and a bullet has shattered Agatha Teel's shoulder. The gunman has fled, gushing blood from a bullet wound of his own, and Teel has just a few minutes to save her own life. She marches herself to the bathroom -- the most lavish room she has ever owned -- strips, and does what she can to dress the wound. A needle of morphine dulls the pain enough for her to walk, and she wraps a sable coat around her nude body and presses for the elevator. She can't die tonight. She has a coup to stage.
 
Six months earlier, Teel set her plot to overthrow the government of the United States in motion. On July 4, 1976, she will crush America beneath her heel. For Teel, it's not about ideology, nor politics. This is strictly personal: It's revenge.