Dead Politician Society (Robin Spano)



Robin Spano’s “Dead Politician Society”.. How to put this.. I was happy but not surprised.
Let me explain.
Dead Politician Society (DPS) is an undercover detective novel. The Mayor is poisoned and dies on stage during a speech. A cryptic untraceable email from the killer is received by the Toronto star, it is signed by a rumored Utopian secret society on the local college campus. The police send in Clare under cover to see if she can fish for more details. they have no other leads.
Clare really leads the novel. She is very likable. Working her first undercover job, she is prone to some understandable mistakes. Clare drinks, smokes, rides a motorbike. She juggles guys and overall does what needs to be done to get the job in the can. I really enjoyed her as a character and am glad this is geared to be a series.
With detective novels, in many cases they are designed to give you all the same clues the investigators receive. If you work it a bit, you can come up with the conclusion to the book in advance. Whodunit mysteries at their best.
DPS did not disappoint in this regard. The culprit was with in my reach from the very beginning, mulligans and red herrings abound, and the reader picks through them to determine truth.
The story is not told from a single perspective, instead, from the point of view of 5-7 folks. Chapters are short, 1-2 pages per. This makes for a very fast book, quick details, not overly described but neither is it lacking description.
Ultimately, this is not a sleeper hit or New York Times best seller novel. For fans of the genre, I believe that this and future Clare Vengel novels will be important to keep an eye out for. I look forward to the second installment.
Dead Politician Society is stated to become available for North American sale in September 2010.
~~
Note to the publisher: I loved the cover art on this. As I read it as an ARC e-book, I obviously have no idea what the deadtree copy will look like, but I hope you went for gritty pulp, not some glossy garbage. Rough pulp novels have a feel to them that make detective novels FEEL better.. Give the designer a 6-pack of some nice micro brew for me, he/she deserves it…
While you are at it, send a sixer to Robin Spano.. Congrats Robin on a great book :)

This review is based on a book kindly provided for free by the publisher or author. Please check my FTC Douche-claimer for details regarding this disclaimer’s existence.

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