Great Political Thriller
This story has one of the best plots I’ve read in a long time. The protagonist was a young woman, Alex Hoffman, who was well trained in writing codes for computers, physical hand-to-hand combat training, worked well as a team. The chapters are many and are written about individual people, places and dates, which is well because there are so many characters named and it is easier to keep track of everything and everyone. Because of her training, she felt most confident of her ability, although she did manage to get herself in some very tight spots. The story commenced when Robert’s wife, Melanie, needed a heart transplant after four months of heart failure and she was refused by the Board who decided who was eligible for heart transplants and who wasn’t because there were so few hearts available. He was devastated but then a Mr. Helms approached him and guaranteed that he could get such performed in return for a small favor in the future, but wouldn’t tell him what that favor might be. Robert was overwhelmed in worry and although he wondered what kind of a favor would be needed to fulfill a $100,000 operation that wouldn’t cost a cent, he agreed to it. Immediately he was contacted, Melanie had the surgery performed and all was well.
EXCEPT Robert was the head of an high tech company in India, which wrote difficult software to meet any demand. Some Congress members wanted a safer, faster, more secure way to have Americans vote, whether for the President or Congressmen. Several companies, most of them overseas, could develop such software and had bid for the contract. Two members on Robert’s company board were against hiring overseas because they were always late, sloppy and couldn’t be relied on. One of them died in a car wreck and the other one suddenly had a heart attack.
This set up the story, a page turner. It included men from several countries who were most interested in adapting the software to change the vote under certain conditions as they chose. Consequently, this circle of men could select the American Presidents and other Congressmen. The way the plot proceeded, it was plausible.
After reading this story, which I truly enjoyed, I found there was a novel written a few years prior by this author called “Executive.” It explains Alex and some of her past, which is lacking in this story and it would have been better if the author could have somehow alluded to that first story. She has a few chapters of that book featured in the back of this e-book and it is not written nearly as well as this one. This book does need some good editing, but for the most part doesn’t take away from the story.
I received a complimentary copy for an honest review.