The Nominee
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Washington press insider Brian McGrory, whose debut novel, The Incumbent, soared onto the national bestseller lists amid rave reviews, is back with a second sizzling political thriller featuring Jack Flynn, the intrepid newspaperman with the wry turn of phrase.
News is crackling all around him when Jack Flynn, ace reporter for The Boston Record, is summoned to a secret meeting with his esteemed publisher, Paul Ellis. Ellis sadly reveals that the newspaper they both love, owned by his family for more than a century, is the target of a hostile takeover bid by a shadowy corporate chain. Desperate, he asks for Jack's help.
Already on the brink of a hot political scoop, Jack sets out in pursuit of a hidden truth. But that very day his life is threatened. The Record is beset by horrific tragedy. And a death from years ago no longer appears what it once seemed.
Now Jack is forced to question not only the words published in his own paper but the relationships that have been the bedrock of his life -- in particular those with his gorgeous ex-girlfriend, who writes for a rival tabloid, and with the venerable Record reporter Robert Fitzgerald, Jack's longtime mentor.
And all along, Jack is sitting on a goldmine of information that could torpedo the president's controversial nomination of the Massachusetts governor to be the next U.S. Attorney General. As he balances on a tightrope of personal and professional peril, shuttling from the swamps of central Florida to the corridors of Congress, then back to the alleyways of Boston, Jack is left with just two questions: Will his newspaper survive long enough for him to tell his story? Will he?
Combining breakneck speed and tension-packed plotting with the insights of a consummate political insider, Brian McGrory explores the ethics and direction of modern journalism and analyzes how, in this era of media saturation, reputations are made and too often destroyed. The Nominee, peopled with irresistible characters that linger long after the last page is turned, confirms his position at the forefront of today's most talented young suspense writers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Investigative reporter Jack Flynn is once again dodging assassins' bullets on the trail of a story that's even more politically explosive than he knows. Boston Globe columnist McGrory's second political thriller (after The Incumbent) crackles with newsroom energy as Flynn investigates corruption that's seemingly close to home: his beloved employer, the Boston Record, is about to be taken over and dumbed down by schlock-media mogul Terry Campbell. On a paranoid hunch from his boss, Flynn is sent to see whether Campbell had anything to do with the death, supposedly of natural causes, of the Record's publisher five years ago. The intrigue widens to include Lance Randolph, the compulsively poll-taking Massachusetts governor just nominated for attorney general, and Flynn discovers a much cozier relationship between politicians and some of his venerable Record colleagues than he had previously suspected. Flynn is a charmingly self-effacing narrator who never misses an opportunity to take a crack at politicos ("Randolph held onto the gun... like it was a campaign contribution"). McGrory offers a scathing take on the state of the news business, as well as the toadying and mutual mistrust that goes on between politicians and the press. Political junkies will love the roman clef details in his memorable portrait of a political scion nervously trying to live up to the family legacy.
