Blindside - Ed Gorman

Political consultant Dev Conrad is back in Ed Gorman's latest mystery novel, BLINDSIDE. This time Dev's been brought into the re-election campaign of a young congressman whose staff has a spy for the opposition in it somewhere. Dev is supposed to identify the source of the leak and put a stop to it, but before he get very far on that job, one of the staffers winds up dead, another goes missing, and as usual Dev winds up investigating a murder on top of his other assignment.

Although politics is the backdrop, BLINDSIDE winds up being about a lot more, mostly, as is common in Gorman's work, about the frailties and dangers, both emotional and physical, of being human. The plot is put together well and unfolds in smooth, fast-moving prose, but the main appeal of the novel is the characters, particularly Dev, who's a very likeable narrator and protagonist. Gorman really puts him through the wringer in this one, and by the end of the book I was eager to find out what was going to happen to him next.

If you're looking for a good traditional mystery set against an intriguing background, you won't go wrong with BLINDSIDE. Highly recommended.