A New, Interesting Political Thriller

A New, Interesting Political Thriller

Bruce Von Stiers

Right now there are a lot of things going on in the realm of politics. The leader of The Proud Boys just received a twenty-two-year prison sentence for his involvement in the January 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capital. A former Trump White House trade advisor was just convicted of Contempt of Congress. And former U.S. President Donald Trump faces almost one hundred felony charges from various court cases filed against him. And the No Labels political party is trying to make it's way to present a formidable Presidential candidate that would be an alternative to the Democrat and Republican candidates.

For the most part, No Labels is regarded with disdain. But what if there were truly a viable third-party candidate for the U.S. Presidency? What if that candidate was a self-made billionaire who can actually relate to the average American? And that the party he is the candidate for is so out of the norm for politics, that it calls itself the Maverick Party?

That scenario is one of the major components of the political thriller novel, The Last Election. It was written by Andrew Yang and Stephen Marche. The Hunger of the Wolf and The Next Civil War are two of the half dozen books that Marche has written. Co-founder of the Forward Party, Yang was a Democratic Presidential candidate for the 2020 election, running against Joe Biden. He is also the author of The War on Normal People. The novel is published by Akashic Books.

I thought that the novel would be full of political intrigue and skullduggery. It does have those elements, but a lot of it is almost a political campaign narrative. That narrative involves the Maverick Party candidate, Cooper Sherman. It seems Sherman founded a multi-billion-dollar software company working with tax compliance issues. And he also hosted seven seasons of a show similar to Shark Tank, helping out failing small businesses. Cooper is a good guy, but is a novice to politics. Hence, one of his top people, Mikey Ricci, tries to keep things afloat and wants to bring the candidate forward on the national election stage. Then there is also Sarah Ren, the party's communications director. She knows where a lot of the figurative bodies are buried and has a tried-and-true way of getting things accomplished.

Another key character in the novel is Martha Kass. She is a reporter for the New York Times. Through a set of unfortunate circumstances, Martha has been relegated to monitor the Times' tip line. She hears a tip that has possible catastrophic implications for the upcoming election. It seems that certain members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the military may be planning a coup. But Martha can't verify who those people are and the validity of the recorded conversation she heard. Part of the novel is about Martha trying to find out the truth, even if it puts her in danger.

There is a plot element that concerns something called a contingent election. This is a term I'd never heard of, so I had to look it up. In a nutshell, if no presidential candidate receives the majority of appointed electors, there is a special election held in Congress. Each state gets a single vote from the House of Representatives, but Senators get to vote individually. The House votes for the President and the Senate for the Vice President. That means that the political party that controls the House of Representatives gets to pick the president they want.

And there is a critical plot element that involves a Proud Boys type of extremist group. That is where some of the skullduggery of the novel comes into play. An extremist group with a catastrophic, violent agenda and access to almost unlimited funding, proves to be an intriguing part of the novel.

All of these things that I have mentioned make for a very appealing novel. It doesn't have the punch of The Manchurian Candidate or David Baldacci's Absolute Power, but The Last Election is really good. It provides a kind of backstage look at pieces of a political campaign and provides enough drama, danger and intrigue to keep you interested.

The Last Election was just released. You can find it at most major book retailers.

To learn more about The Last Election, visit the Akashic Books web site at https://www.akashicbooks.com/

Back to the BVS Reviews Main Menu

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _