First published 2016
J.D. Callahan returns to sweltering New Orleans for what should be a routine Republican convention. His candidate, the sitting vice president, faces off against an anti-immigrant populist in the party's first brokered convention in decades. The economic crisis has voters angry, and the race sits dead even. Then dye bombs explode during the convention, creating mass panic that shifts momentum toward his opponent's law-and-order message. J.D. suspects sabotage, but his problems multiply when his estranged brother arrives demanding a favor that threatens to expose a family secret. The revelation could destroy their late father's reputation as a civil rights journalist and end J.D.'s own career. As J.D. scrambles to save both the campaign and his family's legacy, he dodges a gun-carrying gossip columnist, an FBI agent who thinks he planted the bombs himself, and a corrupt political ally with hidden motives. For the first time, J.D. must choose between the political ambitions that have always driven him and the past he has spent years trying to escape.
Genres: suspense, mystery, contemporary, political-thriller
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: secrets, unreliable-narrator
Setting: New Orleans
Period: Contemporary
258 pages · Hardcover · Knopf