CENTER STAGE

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.