Downie, from 1991 until early 2008 the Washington Post
's executive editor, delivers a nicely executed newsroom procedural in his fiction debut. Sarah Page, a Washington Capital
investigative reporter who's been assigned to the national politics staff after being chastised for a romantic involvement with a colleague, is covering the presidential race between Democrat Monroe Capehart, an elderly Pennsylvania senator, and Republican Warner Wylie, the U.S. vice president. The race escalates after Susan Cameron, California's popular junior senator, becomes Capehart's running mate. Those looking for similarities between Cameron and Sarah Palin will be disappointed, but the same dramatic possibility that haunts the real campaign occurs shortly after the election is decided. Downie (Justice Denied
) exposes corruption at the highest levels and shows how national security trumps pretty much everything, including justice, in an entertaining if familiar tale of murder, cover-ups and personal courage. (Jan.)
