Thursday, June 25, 2015

Elimination - Ed Gorman

Ed Gorman is one of the few writers for whom I'll waive my "no politics" rule. Well, actually it's not a hard and fast rule, but I do tend to avoid books in which partisan politics plays too big a part. However, there's no way I'm going to miss one of Gorman's Dev Conrad novels, and they all center around election campaigns since that's Dev's business.

In the newest book in this series, ELIMINATION, Dev is managing the re-election campaign of an Illinois congresswoman who's running neck and neck with her opponent in the polls. After a debate between the candidates, somebody takes a couple of shots at the congresswoman and gets away. Was it a legitimate but bungled assassination attempt? A stunt staged by one side or the other in an attempt to gain an advantage in the campaign? Dev, a former army investigator, launches his own investigation to find out and soon runs afoul of the local police. Naturally, murder eventually crops up and Dev finds himself in danger more than once, as there's more at stake than just a political campaign.

Gorman's prose is as smooth as ever, his characters are compelling, the plot is suitably twisty right to the end, and Dev Conrad is a very likable hero. This is one of my favorite series, and ELIMINATION is a top-notch entry in it.


1 comment:

Charles Gramlich said...

I actually haven't read any of this series. Guess I'm in for a treat.