Lucas Davenport, was enjoying his time working on an addition to his cabin when he gets a call from Mitford, the chief of staff to Governor Elmer Henderson. Since Davenport left the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, under less than ideal circumstances he has continued to do small investigative jobs for Henderson but this time Mitford was surprisingly closed mouth about what he needed Davenport to do. What was clear is that the matter was urgent and they arranged to meet the following day at a campaign stop in Iowa. The Governor  would be there campaigning for Michaela Bowden who was running to be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States. Henderson himself had always had dreams of running for president himself, but the baggage of his past indiscretions was too much and so now he was hoping that by campaigning for Bowden he might be able to snag the vice presidential nomination.

After Davenport talks with Henderson in Iowa he finally understands the reason for the secrecy. Henderson has had two encounters with people at political rallies which have kind of spooked him. The first was with a kindly looking lady with curly white hair who grabbed his hand and said with intensity, “Governor, you need to move to the center. You have to be ready for the nomination, in case Bowden doesn’t make it, in case something happens to her.”  The second time it was a young man who looked eerily like the older woman he had met previously and his words were almost identical to what the woman had told him. Additionally the campaign has been getting strange emails that also urge him to “move to the center”  in  order “to be ready to take the nomination.”

With very little to go on Davenport begins to look for these two people who had used such strangely threatening language and the author of the emails who seemed to quote them almost verbatim. As the investigation deepens and Davenport’s leads all turn to dead ends, he realizes he must focus all his energy on limiting the impact of an imminent attack on Bowden instead.

I always enjoy Sandford’s books and this one was no different, but there was something just a bit flat about this book. Maybe it was because right from the start you know who the people are who are trying to kill Bowden and their motivations. This is not an unusual device to use in the thrill genre, but somehow instead of adding excitement to the plot line with a “cat and mouse” type of chase, it seemed instead to have the opposite affect.     However, Sandford still manages to pull together enough suspense and thrills in other ways so that you still feel satisfied in the end. There is also a great new twist at the end that may put Davenport back to work again!

Brenda’ Rating: *** 1/2 (3 1/2 out of 5 Stars) 

Recommend this book to: Sharon and Marian

Book Study worthy? Just enjoy!

Read in ebook format.