Sunday, May 26, 2013

The Dirty Secret / Brent Wolfinbarger



Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Political Thriller

Approximate word count: 110-115,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

“Brent Wolfingbarger has been practicing law for almost two decades, representing both Democrats and Republicans in closely contested, high-profile election law battles. He spent five years as a prosecutor in West Virginia, handling the full spectrum of cases including murder, sexual assault, and computer-related crimes, and actively focusing on cutting-edge issues related to the acquisition, analysis, and use of digital evidence in criminal cases.

Wolfingbarger lives in Washington, DC where he continues to work as a prosecutor, handling white collar financial crimes and violent crimes committed against elderly and disabled victims.”

For more, visit the author’s website.

Description:

“The difference between victory and defeat in the Electoral College comes down to 259 votes in West Virginia.

A state senator desperately fights back against a lawsuit that is pushing his family’s company toward bankruptcy.

A vice presidential candidate’s adulterous affair threatens to explode in his face and burst into the world’s headlines with devastating consequences.

A ruthless billionaire will stop at nothing to avoid facing justice for his crimes.

A small town prosecutor stumbles upon a plot to win the election by any means necessary: high-tech manipulation of electronic voting machines, creative interpretation of arcane election laws, bribery, blackmail, and even murder.

And Rikki Gudivada and Dave Anderson – two star-crossed former lovers from opposite sides of the political fence – are drawn back together as the battle rages for West Virginia’s 5 electoral votes, racing to solve a crime that imperils the very heart of America’s constitutional system while each struggles over the same question:

Is anything more important than winning the White House?”

Appraisal:

The U.S. Presidential election is over. Your preferred candidate either won or lost. What at one point appeared to be a nail-biter turned out to not be so close in the numbers that mattered, the electoral college votes. But what if it had been closer and your candidate had lost by a relative handful of votes in one of the swing states? Would you have been concerned?

The Dirty Secret is a tense political thriller that has all the elements of a good story: conflict, a touch of romance, heroes and villains. However, as the author points out in the introduction, it doesn’t stray from the reality of the laws governing U.S. Presidential elections, including some of the more obscure regulations. Fans of political thrillers should eat this up. Those who are politically engaged and unaware of concerns with the integrity of the voting process, especially as it pertains to the use of electronic voting machines, should consider this a wake-up call. Without meaningful election reform, Wolfinbarger’s fiction could easily become reality. Possibly, it already has.

FYI:

Some adult language and mild adult situations.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five stars

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