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| Category: Fiction:Mystery | |
| About the Book | |
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It
is August 2004. The Democratic nominee for President, leading in the
polls, has just died at a fund-raising event. The Democratic National
Committee â 420 of the most unrepresentative, self-interested,
special interest-appointed individuals that could fit under one roof
â must meet within a month and pick a new candidate in a low
man out, musical chairs elimination derby. It's a once in a
lifetime chance for one politician to seize the nomination, and, perhaps,
the Presidency, in a four week sprint. The candidates rush to fill the void. Among them are Joe Patrick, a conservative Senator from Georgia and now the Vice Presidential nominee, and Antonio Gutierrez, the scholarly Senator form New Mexico. Joining them are candidates representing factions within the National Committee: Maryland Governor Catherine Anne Hinson, seeking to become the first woman President; Joshua Leavitt, the Attorney General of New York, citizen crusader; DNC Vice Chair Josiah Martinson, a little known but charismatic; Casimir Hasek, a true blue union ; and former Senator Ray Alvord, a Texas high tech millionaire. Each of them has a strength, and most have a weakness, something they would rather hide. But a conspiracy has begun, led by a corrupt commodities investor, hiding from justice in the coastal jungles of Costa Rica, and an intelligence officer with the forces of rebellion in the southern Sudan. To aid their conspiracy, the Investor has launched a project known to its participants by the codeword "Birdland," the purpose of which is to bribe or blackmail enough members of the DNC to determine the nomination. All that stands in the way of Birdland is John Aronson, the Chair of the Washington State party. Aronson stumbles into the secret of the conspiracy, and begins a race against time, one that will take him and his allies to Khartoum, to a remote mansion overlooking the Pacific in Costa Rica, and, finally, to the heat of a New Orleans summer, where the DNC is gathering to choose a new candidate. As the Committee votes, and candidates fall one by one, Aronson and DNC Executive Director Aviva Cohen race to discover which candidate would buy off democracy itself and place a murderer into the nomination for President of the United States.
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| About the Author | |
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Marc Abrams is former Chair of the Democratic Party of Oregon, and spent five years as a member of the Democratic National Committee. He has worked in politics for over 30 years. Marc lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife, Barbara, and son, Lawrence. |