The Big Lie by James Grippando
Series: Jack Swyteck #16
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers – Harper
Publication Date: February 25, 2020
Date Read: February 23, 2020
Length: 368 pages
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss
★★★★☆
As the Electoral College battle for the White House lands in a Florida courtroom, Miami attorney Jack Swyteck has never felt farther from the truth, fighting for a “faithless elector,” caught between a corrupt president and his manipulative opponent—with each revelation more explosive than the next.
The country is reeling. For the sixth time in American history, the winner of the popular vote will not occupy the Oval Office. President Malcolm MacLeod, the Machiavellian incumbent, was spared from impeachment only because his political foes were certain they would oust him at the ballot box. Now, he appears to have secured a second term, thanks to a narrow victory in the Electoral College.
His opponent, Florida Senator Evan Stahl, saw his campaign rocked by allegations of an extramarital affair—with another man. Despite the salacious headline-making scandal and the surrounding media frenzy, most Americans chose Stahl to lead the politically polarized nation. But Stahl is refusing to concede. Backed by millions of supporters, he looks to individual members of the Electoral College to cross party lines.Gun lobbyist Charlotte Holmes is one of Floridas twenty-nine electors who is bound by law and by oath to cast her vote for MacLeod, who won Florida by the thinnest of margins. When Charlotte announces that she intends to vote her conscience and throw the Electoral College to Stahl, the president and his Florida machine haul her into court on felony charges—which, for some, isn’t nearly punishment enough.
Miami attorney Jack Swyteck is going to use every legal maneuver he can to keep his new client free—and alive. MacLeod’s hand-picked prosecutor is determined to prove Charlotte is unfit to cast a vote. Dredging through her past, he’s looking for skeletons to humiliate and discredit her, while others with far deadlier intentions have begun acting on their threats.
As the pressure mounts, Charlotte and Jack must decide how far they’ll go to stand their ground in the stand-your-ground state.
I enjoyed this book! I have been a fan of James Grippando’s work for a long time. I haven’t read all of his books yet but I have read the majority of them. I have found his books to be consistently good and I look forward to each new release. I had a great time with this book from beginning to end.
I did want to mention that this story is a political one. I tend to go into books blindly if it is at all possible so I was a little surprised by this fact once I started reading. If I had read the book’s description, I would have expected to see a lot of politics. I thought that the story raised an interesting question regarding the duty of the electors. The President in this story looked a whole lot like our current President. Too close in my opinion. I tend to enjoy characters that don’t so closely resemble actual individuals but that is just my preference.
The book opens on election night and once again, everything hinges on Florida. The current President ends up winning the electoral college even though he was behind by eight million votes in the popular vote. If just a few electors cast their votes differently than their state voted, there could be a very different outcome. Charlotte is an elector in Florida and she decides that she will cast her vote for the candidate that did not win her state. Let’s just say that things get very interesting for Charlotte once this decision is announced.
I enjoyed this story quite a bit. There were a whole lot of twists and turns that I did not see coming and I found the story to be very exciting. I really enjoyed all of the legal ramifications and maneuvers in the story. There were several different mysteries throughout this book and it was great to see everything start coming together as the story progressed. This book can easily be read as a stand-alone but fans of the series will enjoy checking in with Jack, Theo, and all of the other characters from the series.
I would recommend this book to others. I found this book to have plenty of action and excitement along with a very relevant premise. This was one that I didn’t want to put down once I started reading. I cannot wait to read more of this author’s work.
I received a digital review copy of this book from HarperCollins Publishers – Harper via Edelweiss.
About the AuthorJames Grippando is a New York Times bestselling author of suspense and the winner of the Harper Lee Prize. The Big Lie is his twenty-eighth novel. He was a trial lawyer before the publication of his first novel, The Pardon, in 1994, and is now Counsel at the law firm of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP. He lives in south Florida and teaches Law & Literature at the University of Miami School of Law.
Wow, this is a long-running series. And the story sure does sound very timely.
I do like a book with twists.
Yay it looks good and I didn't know about this one
How interesting that the mystery is set against the electoral college part of the political process. Jake sounds like a good character and I love that this is a long series that has stayed strong with each release.
i have read a book or two in this series and enjoyed them. need to play catchup
sherry @ fundinmental
nr 16! And I have not really seen them around
I do like a good twisty turny book and I don't think I would have picked this one up based off of just the blurb.
Wow, sounds good bu it might be too close to reality right now which is a little depressing. I don't know this series but it looks like it is one I would enjoy. Fantastic review!
Anne – Books of My Heart
Its always fun to see a story that is packed with plenty of excitement feels to it.
Great review hun.
So help me God, if this is a preview of November, my brain is going to explode.
You have me curious about this one now. And kind of worried. LOL
Never read this author but this sounds like a good one!
I'm not familiar with this author but whoa, this books sounds intriguing. The parallels to our politics is certainly topical! I may need to see if my library has this.