A very good political thriller that doesn't strain your credulity.
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I'm now marked as an old man with certainty, since, although the battle is long over (if there was one), I cannot read "impact" for "affect" without wincing. Even worse are the widespread use of "impacted" (exclusive of the dental literature) and, more horrible still, "impactful". I know how the generations before me felt when they encountered the now thoroughly acceptable "hopefully". The author is young enough and open-minded enough for this usage to appear frequently in this novel. I only mention it to warn the elderly. ( )

This novel is an intense, and intensely rewarding, political thriller written by an American politician. When I read the introduction, I saw, with some misgiving, that the author purposely set out to write a novel with a message. But that misgiving was dispelled by chapter two of the novel, and replaced itself with the tingle of excitement as I realized I had a real page turner in my hands that was going to teach me about a part of American life I know next to nothing about. I settled back to read about true-to-life murder, sexual harassment, Russian and American thugs, and honest people who, unfortunately, often don't speak up until after the consequences of their silence have brought them more guilt than they can continue to carry. The plot, and how the corruption is uncovered, resonate more today than they would have done before we learned so much about Russian meddling in the last U.S. presidential election. Pepper uses his knowledge of the American voting system to show how it can be sabotaged, at a fairly low cost, by any large corporation, never mind large country, wishing to get unwitting (but strongly partisan) politicians elected to serve its cause. In his warts and all depiction of his journalist hero, Jack Sharpe, Pepper also shows us the challenges of working on a local American newspaper, and the power wielded by a journalist and his editors determined to protect democracy. With regard to gerrymandering, U.S. political parties who never want their politicians to even risk losing an election, have created a situation where a foreign entity doesn't need to concentrate its resources on even 50 percent of the States, or even 50 percent of the counties in a State, to ensure itself a favorable outcome, but I don't wish to spoil the enjoyment you'll get out of reading this book, which has an ending that would have delighted Machiavelli, so I'll end my review here. ( )

A political thriller about gerrymandering and voting machine elections fraud—I love the concept! The execution fell flat. Pepper tells, not shows, through the entire book, spelling out every plot point over and over, and over again. Then you get constant flashbacks to spell it out a tenth time (I assume these were meant as filler, to get the page count up, because they achieve nothing else). There is only one character really, with no foil for interesting conversations, and the writing is just plain (but with plenty of typos).

The plot doesn't make much sense. In the whole country there is only one political reporter? And the happily-ever-after ending just feels fake. ( )

This is a very chilling novel depicting a Russian oligarch's meddling in American elections - and succeeding. The author is a former member of the House of Representatives and was published before the 2016 US national elections. There were many times this book literally sent chills down my spine. I am looking forward to reading The Wingman - the authors next book. ( )