Wendy Upton, a highly respected centrist senator, must make a choice: she’s been offered the VP slot by both parties’ leading candidates. When she receives an anonymous, unnerving threat that could destroy her promising career, she hires Peter Rena to investigate her past and figure out which side is threatening her and what they are threatening her with.
... offers a vivid — if sometimes inartful — portrait of an American political landscape in ugly disarray. Sound familiar? ... Rosenstiel reimagines our headlines in newly nightmarish ways ... If all that feels unpleasantly real, the main characters in Oppo often talk like fundraising letters, too ... While I was often impatient with the novel’s not-how-real-people-talk palaver, I did think about sending some of Rosenstiel’s characters $25 ... Rosenstiel effectively renders wild political times but, unfortunately, his characters don’t come to life in an engaging way, nor do the meant-to-be-sinister figures who eavesdrop electronically or park down on the street menacingly cause much more than mild curiosity. It’s too bad, as the good guys in Oppo do manage to provide a satisfying denouement for Upton’s story — if not, alas, for the country’s.
Rosenstiel...crafts a book that offers the double pleasure of an exciting story and new knowledge--how vetting is carried on in today’s supercharged political world. Will appeal to all lovers of quality political thrillers.
