An entertaining political thriller—smart and engrossing.
A retired rock star—the son of a veteran politician—decides to run for a vacated seat in the Senate.
After Nevada Sen. Ted Garvey dies, there’s a frantic race for his seat, a crucial one for a Senate equally divided by the two warring political parties. Billy Rogers, an uninspiring “pedestrian pol” with “zero charisma,” takes aim at the vacancy for the Democrats while Chris Collins, a beautiful, talented, but soulless Republican, pounces as well. The monkey wrench in both their plans is Tyler Sloan, an aging rock star willing to retire from his career and devote tens of millions of his vast fortune to becoming the next senator of Nevada. He’s never held public office, but he’s not your average political neophyte either—Sloan’s father, Mike, was a storied Democratic politician who just barely missed occupying the Oval Office. Sloan is beloved, handsome, and charming, but he also has his own baggage—a history of promiscuity and drug use, for starters. Even worse, he once had a “couple of romps” with Collins—including a threesome a quarter-century ago that was immortalized on film. Denny Morgan, a washed-up former rock star, has the tape, but he’s not giving it up for free. Avrashow skillfully takes a shopworn paperback formula—the political outsider bucking convention to do the right thing—and gives it a delightfully fresh take. There’s no shortage of political intrigue depicted with astuteness and emotional drama as well, including the romantic electricity between Tyler and his media consultant Bree Baker. This isn’t exactly All the King’s Men, but it isn’t fluffy pulp-fiction boilerplate either.
An entertaining political thriller—smart and engrossing.Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64543-794-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: RealClear Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
If you love good crime writing but aren’t familiar with Winslow’s work, read this trilogy in order.
The dramatic conclusion to the trilogy about two New England crime families begun in City on Fire (2022) and City of Dreams (2023).
Near the end of his journey, multimillionaire Danny Ryan watches a casino implode in a mushroom cloud of dust and muses about his life’s implosions: “The cancer that killed his wife, the depression that destroyed his love, the moral rot that took his soul.” Danny is from Providence, Rhode Island, and desperately tried to leave his criminal life behind him. But using a ton of ill-gotten gains, he invests heavily in Las Vegas properties. Congress is conducting an investigation into gambling that could destroy his casino business and even land him in jail. An FBI agent plans to take Danny down for major sins he’d like to repent for. Meanwhile, can he make peace with his enemies? Nope, doesn’t look like it. Even if the parties involved want to put the past behind them, the trouble is that they don’t trust each other. Is Vern Winegard setting Dan up? Is Dan setting Vern up? “Trust? Trust is children waiting for Santa Claus.” So what could have been a “Kumbaya,” nobody-wants-to-read-this story turns into a grisly bloodletting filled with language that would set Sister Mary Margaret’s wimple on fire—figuratively speaking, as she’s not in the book. But the Catholic reference is appropriate: Two of the many colorful characters of ill repute are known as the Altar Boys, serving “Last Communion” to their victims. On the law-abiding side and out of the line of fire is an ex-nun-turned-prosecutor nicknamed Attila the Nun, who’s determined to bring justice for a gory matricide. (Rhode Island really had such a person, by the way.) Finally, the prose is just fun: A friend warns Dan about Allie Licata: “In a world of sick fucks, even the sick fucks think Licata’s a sick fuck.” A couple of things to note: This not only ends the trilogy, but it also closes out the author’s career, as he has said he’ll write no more novels.
If you love good crime writing but aren’t familiar with Winslow’s work, read this trilogy in order.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780063079472
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024
PROFILES
As an adjunct member says, “You’re not a family, you’re a force.” Exactly, though not in the way you’d expect.
The ne’er-do-well son of a successful Irish American family gets dragged into criminal complications that suggest the rest of the Devlins aren’t exactly the upstanding citizens they appear.
The first 35 years in the life of Thomas “TJ” Devlin have been one disappointment after another to his parents, lawyers who founded a prosperous insurance and reinsurance firm, and his more successful siblings, John and Gabby. A longtime alcoholic who’s been unemployable ever since he did time for an incident involving his ex-girlfriend Carrie’s then 2-year-old daughter, TJ is nominally an investigator for Devlin & Devlin, but everyone knows the post is a sinecure. Things change dramatically when golden-boy John tells TJ that he just killed Neil Lemaire, an accountant for D&D client Runstan Electronics. Their speedy return to the murder scene reveals no corpse, so the brothers breathe easier—until Lemaire turns up shot to death in his car. John’s way of avoiding anything that might jeopardize his status as heir apparent to D&D is to throw TJ under the bus, blaming him for everything John himself has done and adding that you can’t trust anything his brother has said since he’s fallen off the wagon. TJ, who’s maintained his sobriety a day at a time for nearly two years, feels outraged, but neither the police investigating the murder nor his nearest and dearest care about his feelings. Forget the forgettable mystery, whose solution will leave you shrugging instead of gasping, and focus on the circular firing squad of the Devlins, and you’ll have a much better time than TJ.
As an adjunct member says, “You’re not a family, you’re a force.” Exactly, though not in the way you’d expect.Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9780525539704
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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