Review by Booklist Review
Former Virginia senator Lincoln Bowe is missing. His wife, Madison, believes his bitter political rival, Governor Arlo Goodman, is behind it. Critics scoff until she reveals a security tape showing two men loosely affiliated with Goodman threatening her in her home. Bowe's disappearance is a political time bomb. The presidential conventions are just over the horizon, and both parties fear the consequences if it detonates. The president, through his chief of staff, hires Jake Winter to investigate. Bowe's body is found soon after Winter initiates his investigation. Bowe was not a saint: his sexual dalliances, with both men and women, were numerous, and his obsession with destroying Goodman's political career may have driven him to contemplate political blackmail. Winter has plenty of suspects to choose from, and he knows the answer can be found somewhere in Washington's backrooms, where third-string campaign dirty tricksters change allegiances like other people change socks. Sandford, the best-selling author of the Prey series, displays an insider's knowledge of political infighting and couples it with his skill at creating memorable characters working through the maze of a diabolical plot. (Readers of a certain age will be reminded of Ross Thomas, grand master of the D.C. thriller from an earlier era.) The real Washington is awash with its own scandals and political time bombs, so expect readers to flock to this funhouse-mirror reflection of the real thing. --Wes Lukowsky Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
When Lincoln Bowe, a controversial Republican ex-senator, disappears at the start of this fast-paced thriller from bestseller Sandford (Broken Prey), the White House puts Jacob Winter, a veteran political operative with "an uncanny ability to navigate the world of bureaucracy," on the case. Bowe vanished shortly after making a fiery speech denouncing a rival, Arlo Goodman, the governor of Virginia and a demagogue who heads a volunteer militia group known as the Watchmen. When Bowe's burnt and headless corpse turns up, Winter is under even more pressure to discover those behind his murder. Aided by the dead man's attractive and possibly duplicitous widow, Madison, the fixer follows a trail of corpses and deception that suggests the killing may have been a staged piece of theater intended to derail Goodman's ascent to the presidency. Readers interested in a quick diverting romp without much gravitas will enjoy this, but serious Beltway fiction junkies might prefer their political thrillers to be a little more plausible. 500,000 announced first printing. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Chief investigator at the White House, Jacob Winter knows things are bad when a senator's disappearance sends his wife on the run as well. With a ten-city tour. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The disappearance of a high-profile politician lights the fuse in Sandford's latest high-octane, low-logic thriller. Even after losing the Virginia governor's race to Arlo Goodman and then losing his Senate seat to an undistinguished Goodman protg, Lincoln Bowe has kept right on speaking out against Goodman and all his works--especially the Watchmen, a network of Goodman's citizen-activists Bowe likens to neo-Nazis. Now Bowe has vanished after a typically fiery speech, gone missing in the company of some suits who spirited him away. Madison Bowe, his wife, is convinced that Watchmen were inside those suits. Bill Danzig, the president's chief of staff, isn't so sure. But he is convinced that whatever happened to Bowe, the story is explosive. Attempting to stay ahead of its developments, Danzig calls in Jacob Winter, a go-to guy with a Special Forces pedigree who bills himself as a forensic bureaucrat, and tells him to find Bowe. Jake is too late to help Bowe, who's already dead. But he may not be too late to contain an improbable cascade of scandals that hover around Bowe and threaten to bring down the president. In order to do his job, though, Jake will need to stay out of the lethal crossfire between the armed and dangerous Watchmen and Bowe's own friends, allies and ex-lovers, who turn out to be every bit as shady, determined and ruthless. In the expert hands of Sandford (Broken Prey, 2005, etc.), the story flies along, keeping the action at such a furious pace, even without a high body count, that few readers will notice the glaring coincidences, the leaps of logic and the monumental good luck Jake needs to succeed as detective, lover (you'll never guess who he falls for) and survivor. Not as tightly woven as Sandford's best, but reliable thrills with some unexpected political overtones from a pro's pro. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
