New Book Alert The Long Game: An Amy Radigan Thriller by Ian Conner; Complex and Multi Plotted Political Thriller Closes Outstanding Reading Year

 

New Book Alert: The Long Game: An Amy Radigan Thriller by Ian Conner; Complex and Multi Plotted Political Thriller Closes Outstanding Reading Year

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: There are some authors that their very name tells you what book that they are going to write. Even in my experience with my blog, I have found that authors have preferences for certain genres and tropes. I see Kathy Ann Trueman or Catherine Dove's name and I know that I will read an Epic Fantasy or Regency Romance. Tom Vater will lead us straight to a Mystery by a European detective in an Asian location. Lee Matthew Goldberg will take you through a trippy Horror or Science Fiction with lots of drug use involved. Melissa Muldoon and Kit Sergeant will take a trip through Historical Fiction with strong confident female leads that are artists and spies respectively. Rob Santana will be counted on for a novel with a modern setting, plenty of biting satire,social commentary, and desperate not always likeable characters doing desperate things. Sawney Hatton is going to take his Readers through a bloody short trip into Supernatural Horror.

Yes, some authors leave their fingerprints all over certain books so Readers can recognize those fingerprints instantly. Then there are authors who are like chameleons. Each book is different from the others and they have next to nothing in common.

Take Ian Conner for example. His novel, Skadegamutc Ghost Witch is a Supernatural Horror set in the limited setting of Pequabuck Lake in Nollesemic Village, Maine. It is set throughout four centuries and involves a sinister lake creature that haunts the village, especially two families that it considers its enemies.

Conner's next book, The Long Game: An Amy Radigan Thriller could not be more different from Skadegamutc Ghost Witch if it tried. Instead of supernatural horror, it is a political thriller set in the real world and involves real world issues like environmentalism, censorship, sexuality, hate crimes, xenophobia, and corruption. Instead of being contained in one rural setting,The Long Game goes all over the world from California, to Washington DC, to China, to Vietnam and so on. With such a wide setting, there are many plots that involve many characters unlike Skadegamutc Ghost Witch which features a much more limited cast that take on this demonic entity. Long Game is complex and multiplotted and handles itself well with interesting characters and strong political themes.

The plot or rather plots in The Long Game are rather intricate and varied but I will do my best to summarize (or as Indigo Montoya said, "I will explain. No it's too long, I'd better sum up").

 Along the California coast, Captain James Quinn's ship was sabotaged, nearly killing him. It's followed by another explosion along the San Onofre harbor. It may have had something to do with a sample of water outside the nearby San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station or SONGS that Quinn gathered and had analyzed. This water is revealed to be contaminated and toxic. The mysterious explosions, contamination, and sabotage are being investigated by intrepid journalist, Amy Radigan.

Meanwhile, journalist Amir Husseffgi is reported missing in Saudi Arabia. Even though the Saudi Prince denies any involvement and U.S. President Colin Rockwell swears that he won't investigate it, video footage of Husseffgi's murder and beheading in the name of the prince is leaked. It is revealed Rockwell has been currying favor with the Saudis and doesn't want to break those connections.

On the South China Sea, two U.S. Naval ships are attacked leaving several sailors dead. Vice President Susan Ralston wants to confront the Chinese government but Rockwell refuses. He has been having an affair with the Chinese ambassador, Xin Zhui, and is soon to be caught literally with his pants down. All of this leads to an impeachment investigation towards Rockwell and his affiliations with the Chinese and Saudi Arabian governments.

During their separate investigations into these events, both Ralston and Radigan and their friends and family are viciously attacked. Ralston in a deliberate plane crash and Radigan by an attempted hit. Don't worry, Reader, it all makes sense and everything is revealed to be connected to everything else, eventually.

Connervbrilliantly balances all of these plots rather well. He also has a handle on using them as mirrors for real life occurrences. The most obvious is the murder of Amir Husseffgi based on the real life assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Colin Rockwell's obstreperous misogynistic racist attitude is all too similar to a certain real life ex President. A smart calm independent female Vice President is certainly based on the real life Kamala Harris. They are groundbreaking female Vice President for different reasons. (First African American and Indian American for Harris and first LGBT for Ralston.) Also, the alternate universe scenario reveals that Harris herself, after getting the top job, was fatally wounded during an assassination attempt by a Trump supporter claiming to "stop the steal." (If that doesn't recall a certain insurrection by a multitude of Trumpers egged on by their cult leader, I don't know what does.)

As with many books that I have reviewed these past couple of years have proven, what we once thought existed only in fiction is no longer out of the realm of reality. It would have been ludicrous to assume that followers of a President would believe his claims that the election process was fraudulent and even after several investigations proved that there was no corruption, they still rioted at the Capitol verbally and prepared to attack the former Vice President and several Congress members. Not to mention that even though they had literally millions of eyewitnesses watching it in real time, said former President and his supporters still had people insisting that it was a spontaneous gathering of harmless tourists (or that it was an insidious plot by Antifa or BLM to make Trump look bad, even though they did a good enough job on their own).

After that, it is definitely not impossible to believe that a future President could openly conspire to assassinate his Vice President or pull a gun on those who are charging him with crimes. The only way the Long Game could be more synced to real time is if a 24 hours news station's correspondents could insist that Rockwell's impeachment investigation was a conspiracy and that Ralston secretly worked for the Deep State.

The Long Game is only a couple of steps off from what really happened and what still could happen.

With such a twisted plot, one would suspect that Conner would have trouble juggling such a large cast of characters but he excels at that as well. Many have outstanding moments. There is Randall, a bodyguard hired to protect Radigan and her girlfriend, Lily Pham. Randall is a real softie as he reveals in his dialogues with Twizzler, a troubled teen turned sidekick and informant.  

Lily also proves her mettle when she gets the better of a hitman. He thinks it will be an easy job and she immediately proves him wrong. Both Lily and Ralston's girlfriend, Carol Lee are the definite "Ride or Die" supportive spouses, ready to stand by the women in their lives, no matter what.

Amanda Rockwell, the First Lady, holds a press conference to put her husband in his place and uses the First Couple version of "Not tonight, Couch Boy." Meanwhile, Xin Zhui could be seen as a femme fatale but also has enough insight to take part in Rockwell's downfall. Then there's the President that Readers will love to hate, or just hate, Colin Rockwell himself. He takes Donald Trump's worst qualities up to eleven (if such a thing were possible) and thankfully gets his commeuppance. 

By far the standout characters are Amy Radigan and Susan Ralston. They are similar in many ways. Both are dedicated in their fields of journalism and politics respectively and both are lesbians in loving committed relationships. They also are born survivors who are able to get through touch situations such as surviving assassination attempts and conspiracies.

Their investigative techniques are very different and are respective of their positions in life. Radigan has to contend with slamming doors, voice mails, and receptionists giving her the run around. These are hurdles that Ralston's title and influence can open. Radigan however has the passion, idealism, and integrity that Ralston lost in her years of compromise and working in business and politics. It's not a surprise that when  the two women meet, they become friends. Radigan is the woman that Ralston once was and Ralston is the woman that Radigan could become. The two women bring out the best in each other and are able to see through the many tangled strands in this intricate spider web.

The Silicon Gambit is a brilliant complex novel that proves Conner has a great handle on plots and characters. He proved that she can write Horror and now has proven that he can write Political Thriller. His book is a great final well written word on 2021.