Adam Colclough lives and works in the West Midlands, he writes regularly for a number of websites, one day he will get round to writing a book for someone else to review.
America 2016, a brash business tycoon with a questionable personal life is poised to become president. He is also the subject of persistent rumours about his unlikely ascent to ruler of the free world being bankrolled by shadowy figures with links to the Kremlin.
Down on her luck tabloid hack Grace Eliot stumbles on the story that could resurrect her career when she uncovers a link between his ex-wife and a Soviet plot to plant sleeper agents in the West. The Cold War might be long over, but, as Grace finds out, there are powerful forces determined to keep its biggest gamble in play.
Any resemblance between this novel and events surrounding the current resident of the White House is entirely intentional. Alex Urban has extrapolated from actual events a conspiracy thriller made powerful by the possibility some of it might be accurate.
The central character, Grace, is the right mix of personal calculation, one big scoop is all she needs to turn mediocrity into fame and fortune, and a residual belief that journalism should be about more than trivia. As for the cast of fixers, operatives and opportunists trying to lever Anthony Craig into the oval office, they demonstrate an all too believable disregard for everything apart from their own ambitions.
This book sets up a neat, suspenseful chase across two continents, in the process dragging into the light some of the less palatable consequences of our celebrity culture.
