I’m a fairly heavy reader and I read broadly across genres, but also I devour a good mix of indie authors, small press authors and the heavyweights who routinely crank out bestsellers, most of which are represented by the big publishing houses. Most, but not all. So needless to say I’m used to a high caliber of writing wherever I turn. It is simply not true that you can predict where you’ll find the gems among writers anymore; they could be obscure and unknown, all-too-well known, or dismissed as “midlist” which I associate with “middling”, again anything but the truth. And while I read my share of throwaways two, I don’t often finish those books and it’s even rarer that I review them. Forgive me if I’m not enough of a masochist to do either. Okay, enough self-credentialing, as if that’s at all possible. If you’re wondering what all the windup is about, it’s this: this writer totally blew me away within the first couple chapters. I was able to relax thereafter for the rest of the novel, knowing I was in capable hands. Andy Updegrove has all the right stuff between the covers that bestsellers are based on and even among exceptional writers with monster talents, he managed to rattle my cage. That’s my way of saying while I’m used to and expect excellence, every once in a while even jaded, entitled readers like myself can be pleasantly surprised.
His storytelling mastery is enough for me to follow him anywhere, no matter the subject matter of his novels. But as it turns out, this political thriller was not only all too timely and topical, but shines a light on our world in a way that desperately needs doing. Our political institutions are in shambles in the U.S., with corruption run rampant, and getting nearly as bad as one would expect in any 2nd or 3rd world country; of course, we might arguably be a 2nd or 3rd world country now that the top one percent have vacuumed up the wealth in this country from the remaining 99%. Bernie Saunders is the first candidate to come along that suggests the American people might just finally be getting duly fed up with the carpetbaggers and multibillionaires calling the shots behind the scenes, owning candidates in the senate, congress, and the judiciary down both sides of the aisle, having swapped out our democracy for an oligarchy in the dead of night. If that doesn’t make you fuming mad, it should. But maybe you just don’t tune in your reality anymore because who could face such horror dead on? Well, not to worry, apparently you can get a sharper picture of it by reading The Lafayette Campaign than can be relayed through the headline news of the Big Brother media whose sole purpose is to distract you from what’s really going on behind the scenes. As you consume the pages of this novel don’t be surprised to find that that the truth is even more horrific than you could have imagined. And if you have so much as one solo activist blood cell circulating through your body, trust me, it’ll have taken over the rest of you by the time you’ve finished reading. For it isn’t just politics that’s bent in this technothriller, it’s the technology that Americans rely on for electing their politicians, for judging the truth. It’s automation and computers and our very high-tech world that we can rest assured is out to get us if we don’t keep a wary eye on it and the people who are very adept at working it towards their own ends.
But enough high level talk and speaking in abstractions and generalizations; I want to roll up my sleeves and discuss some of the more captivating plot and character points of this story (at least for me; feel free to point out some of your own.) Coming up short of handing out spoilers. First off, the well-researched author, armed with the facts, did a lot to expand my understanding of the state of spy-craft post 9-11. I think you too will be surprised over just how much more is going on behind the scenes than you ever imagined, and that will ever be publicly acknowledged. I’ve remained a long-time fan of Tom Clancy novels for the same reason, these behind-the-scenes eye-openers. But things have continued to evolve quite a bit since Clancy’s day. I appreciated finding that I could still get my fix through this author. Most of us find reality scary enough with what we do know of how things work; trust me, heightened awareness rises to spine-chilling levels the more truth is revealed through the flipped pages of this piece of “fiction.”
I had some trepidation over how the author was going to make the ins and outs of computer hacking work without my eyes rolling to the back of my head. I enjoy the techno in techno-thrillers, but one could easily lose me if one were determined to speak the private language of genius geeks. My experience reading The Lafayette campaign was just the opposite. The author did a great job hand-holding me through the more technical stuff and making it interesting, as well, with appropriate analogies. It’s no small challenge writing in a way that is as inviting to a cyber-hacker as it is to a novice, but Updegrove pulls it off.
Frank, our protagonist, is a very personable hero. Allegedly trying to write a book to cover his prior exploits counter-hacking for the government, he admits rather openly to not being able to get past the first paragraph. He wanders the desert lost in search of inspiration in his tricked-out camper, only to find himself pouring his mind out over the vista instead of the page. I found his mind easy to inhabit, because though a highly flawed human being, much like the rest of us, I found I could easily identify with a lot of thoughts flying through his head; they were thoughts I’d be having in the same situation, minus of-course, the techno-genius bits of inspiration. And after a while, the spellbinding nature of the writing had me thinking that even those thoughts were popping out of my head.
As the plot wends on with twists and turns it also thickens, and we find that there are numerous dubious parties working at cross-purposes, but all gambling on being able to electronically rig an election. The ugly politics and deal-making in the background feels all too-real, as does the election being rigged, filled as it is with characters too obscenely insane with their proposals to be taken seriously as candidates—you know, just like the ones running for the Republican party now, extremists, racists, bomb-our-economy-back to the Stone Age-types, not to mention the, “We’ll-say anything to get into office, and do any damn thing we want once inside, so long as it’s in keeping with the handful of super-rich puppet masters and detrimental to the ninety-nine percent of Americans (and if at all possible to the ninety-nine percent of humanity.”) In short the story is rife with all the context not usually found in the nightly-news about today’s campaign shenanigans.
Let me wrap up by saying…
This is one of a half a dozen best-in-class books or so I’ve read in the last year that deserves to be a bestseller—all penned by indie authors and folks represented by small, nearly unknown publishers. Which just convinces me there’s no justice in the world. At least until readers start venturing more boldly where others fear to tread.
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About the author
Top reviews from other countries
Scott Parsons
Entertaining Tale Of Election Hacking
Reviewed in Canada on November 5, 2018Rosie_007
A great book I would highly recommend.
Reviewed in Australia on February 9, 2017
Marcus Case
Wonderful Vacation Entertainment!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 29, 2015Mr. F. Parker
Having read and enjoyed the third
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 20, 2017