Perhaps a sign of Grippando’s brilliance is that a reader’s thoughts do not necessarily remain within the confines of the plot ... loved this plotline, as its hypothesis guarantees a flurry of conjecture about how an elector could be influenced: Blackmail, intimidation, bribery…any of the possibilities could make foreign interference in our elections irrelevant ... While this thriller has all the necessary elements — including drug lords, torture, and assassins — plausibility suffered, for me, with the author’s depiction of the sinister, corrupt incumbent president, Malcolm MacLeod ... I started reading The Big Lie on a two-and-a-half-hour flight, and I was finished 48 hours later. The tension and twists might not measure up to my favorite authors — such as Sandford, Crais, Deaver, Dugoni, Gardner, and Coben — but the story was definitely entertaining.
An all-too-timely scenario drives bestseller Grippando’s solid 16th Jack Swyteck novel ... Readers uneasy in the current political climate won’t feel any easier. Those who prefer escapism in their thrillers should look elsewhere.
Want a break from the ruthless 24/7 cycle of political ups and downs? Stay miles away from this latest case for Miami attorney Jack Swyteck...ripped not so much from the headlines as from your deepest electoral nightmares ... The complications that follow are expertly spun, and the courtroom maneuvers on both sides are impressively baroque, but the gorgeous Electoral College premise marks the beginning of a wild ride that runs off the rails long before the fade-out. The multilayered case gets so crazy that it may provide escapist solace after all.
