Mounting Fears

November 17, 2008
In bestseller Woods’s uninspired sixth Will Lee thriller (after Capital Crimes
), the incumbent U.S. president, William Jefferson Lee, faces a series of crises in an election year: his vice president has died during surgery; a nuclear warhead is missing in Pakistan and believed to be in the hands of a terrorist group possibly connected to al-Qaeda; and an independent presidential candidate, a charismatic minister, has erased Lee’s once significant lead in the polls. To make matters worse, Lee’s newly appointed vice president, the former governor of California, has got himself entangled in a messy divorce as well as a sordid love triangle that, if exposed, could become front-page fodder for the tabloids and all but destroy Lee’s re-election bid. While Woods exhibits his usual brilliant sense of pacing, two-dimensional characters, a mechanical plot and an improbable ending far from satisfy.

December 1, 2008
President William Jefferson Lee IV 's reelection campaign turns out to be just one darned thing after another.

What could possibly go wrong for Will Lee, who enters the Democratic convention enjoying a 62 percent approval rating? His loyal and talented Vice President, George Kiel, could sicken and die. The new VP he appoints, California Gov. Martin Stanton, could turn out to be divorcing (a private matter he shares with Will) and be a serial womanizer (an even more private matter he doesn 't), and his phone calls to his inamorata could be recorded and end up in the files of the National Inquisitor. Black Atlanta Mayor Henry King Jackson could withdraw from the Democratic party and announce his independent campaign for president. Charlene Joiner, the actress whose ex-boyfriend, Larry Eugene Moody, Will defended unsuccessfully years ago on charges of rape and murder, could throw herself at Will —literally, at a Democratic fundraiser, right in front of a fortuitous press photographer —in an attempt to get him to pardon Moody. Ex –CIA operative Teddy Fay, that freelance assassin of right-wing politicians who 's been repeatedly reported dead (Shoot Him If He Runs, 2007, etc.), could surface yet again in Panama. Oh, and would you believe it? On top of everything else, the Taliban could seize a nuclear device in Afghanistan, along with the codes and personnel necessary to detonate it. Will and his wife Kate, director of the post-Teddy CIA, deal with each crisis calmly, decisively and with humor.

Wildly erratic Woods 's latest won 't be news to anyone except folks who think that all presidential elections, especially if they 're fictional, have to be as exciting as the 2008 election was in real life.

(COPYRIGHT (2008) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

October 15, 2008
Will Lee, the Democratic incumbent president, is up for reelection andquickly discovers that hes in fora bumpy ride. After his vice president dies unexpectedly, Will mustfind a new running mate who canimmediately be sworn in. He settles on California governor Marty Stanton, who seems perfect on paper but is hiding a secret that could reflect badly on the ticket. The stakes are upped when the Republicans settle on a young, hot up-and-comer and a popular black minister enters the race as an independent, threatening to siphon off votes from Will. To make matters worse, Will is dealing with a huge international incident: terrorists have seized control of a nuclear missile site in Pakistan. Things are heating up behind the scenes as well: Teddy Fay, a deadly assassin the CIA has been tracking for years, has resurfaced in Panama and will soon headback to U.S. soil. Theres a lot going on in Woods latest thriller, but the plotlines dovetail nicely and the suspense never lets up. With publication set just after the 2008 presidential election, Mounting Fears is both timely and gripping and far superior to his most recent Stone Barrington book, Hot Mahogany (2008).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)

December 1, 2008
President William Jefferson Lee IV's reelection campaign turns out to be just one darned thing after another.

What could possibly go wrong for Will Lee, who enters the Democratic convention enjoying a 62 percent approval rating? His loyal and talented Vice President, George Kiel, could sicken and die. The new VP he appoints, California Gov. Martin Stanton, could turn out to be divorcing (a private matter he shares with Will) and be a serial womanizer (an even more private matter he doesn't ), and his phone calls to his inamorata could be recorded and end up in the files of the National Inquisitor. Black Atlanta Mayor Henry King Jackson could withdraw from the Democratic party and announce his independent campaign for president. Charlene Joiner, the actress whose ex-boyfriend, Larry Eugene Moody, Will defended unsuccessfully years ago on charges of rape and murder, could throw herself at Will —literally, at a Democratic fundraiser, right in front of a fortuitous press photographer —in an attempt to get him to pardon Moody. Ex –CIA operative Teddy Fay, that freelance assassin of right-wing politicians who's been repeatedly reported dead (Shoot Him If He Runs, 2007, etc.), could surface yet again in Panama. Oh, and would you believe it? On top of everything else, the Taliban could seize a nuclear device in Afghanistan, along with the codes and personnel necessary to detonate it. Will and his wife Kate, director of the post-Teddy CIA, deal with each crisis calmly, decisively and with humor.

Wildly erratic Woods's latest won't be news to anyone except folks who think that all presidential elections, especially if they ' re fictional, have to be as exciting as the 2008 election was in real life.

(COPYRIGHT (2008) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)