Senator

by Richard Bowker

Overview

Jim O'Connor, the Republican senator from Massachusetts, is a handsome, charismatic family man—and a future contender for the presidency.

But when O'Connor discovers his mistress brutally murdered in her apartment, he becomes a number-one homicide suspect of the Boston Police Department.

With November on the horizon and his campaign spinning out of control, the Senator must hunt down a killer in the capital of lies—in order to salvage his battered political career...and his own life.

REVIEWS:
"An exciting mystery... Those with a taste for mixing politics and murder will savor the tale to the end." ~Booklist

"Bowker is a smooth and sensitive writer." ~The New York Times Book Review

"Senator actually is three stories in one: a political thesis, a murder mystery and a morality tale, each complementing the other in a skillful blend that is as contemporary as today’s headlines. Senator is timely, profound, and suspenseful." ~Cape Cod Times

"A page turner... Well worth reading." ~Library Journal

OTHER TITLES by Richard Bowker
Pontiff
Summit
Replica
Dover Beach

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781614173090
Publisher:	ePublishing Works!
Publication date:	06/02/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	79,935
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Critically-acclaimed author Richard Bowker has published a variety of novels including science fiction, mysteries and thrillers. When he isn't writing, Richard enjoys life with family and friends, and offering thoughts on writing, reading and learning at richardbowker.com

Editorial Reviews

If Bowker ( Replica ) hasn't combined The Last Hurrah and All the King's Men , he's come pretty close. Narrator James O'Connor, a young Republican Senator in heavily Democratic Massachusetts, has a month to go in his reelection campaign when he finds the body of ex-mistress Amanda in her Back Bay Boston apartment. The plot tracks O'Connor's attempts to find the killer, avert scandal and win the election, but the real story concerns the Senator's relations with his family: a privacy-craving wife, a precocious daughter, a widowed father and a ne'er-do-well older brother born the same year as he, his ``Irish twin.'' Almost as important are his trials with friends and foes, including a campaign worker in love with him, a manager with White House dreams, a slavishly devoted driver, the archenemy Boston D.A. and the Governor trying for his seat. All these characters come alive, most notably an emotionally restrained, proud, puckish father, who laments: ``Two sons . . . one a lush, the other a Republican. Where did I go wrong?'' Though the political setting rings wonderfully true, we don't quite see the rather stiff-necked narrator as a natural politician, much less as a lover of the glamorous Amanda. But the plot remains practically bullet-proof, right up to the surprising, ambiguous ending. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Several life forms are featured in this page turner, among them crooks and politicians, (interchangeable) girlfriends, campaign workers and hangers-on, family members, and old buddies. Having extricated his brother from troublesome situations involving the IRA, gunrunners, and neighborhood toughs, Attorney General Jim O'Connor sets himself up for even more trouble by pursuing another term in the Senate. The investigation into his girlfriend's murder opens a can of worms big enough to start a chain of bait shops. Will the murderer be caught? Will the family find out? Will O'Connor remember which lies are really the truth? This novel is well worth reading if only to restore one's cynicism about political maneuverings. For popular collections.-- Lynn Thompson, formerly of Ozark Regional Lib., Ironton, Mo.

Library Journal

The skeletons in the closet of Jim O'Connor, Bay State Irish pol and presidential aspirant, rattle loud and suspensefully in this exciting mystery. Prime suspect in the knife murder of a young female reporter, O'Connor lies about his amours with the victim, telling investigators that their assignations were innocent news interviews. If the fibs, once revealed, don't blow his career out of the water, ancient political enemies closing in on long-hidden ties to a mobster lurk just as dangerously beneath the surface. An ongoing reelection campaign lets Bowker inject ruthless aides into the action but also furnishes the means for releasing a mainspring in the mystery: in a debate, Senator O'Connor recalls a 1969 Harvard riot. Its radical leader (latterly turned speculator) knows a few critical secrets about the murder that O'Connor, in desperation, tries to pry loose to vindicate himself. Ultimately, the perp turns out to be the person least expected. Those with a taste for mixing politics and murder will savor the tale to the end.

Gilbert Taylo