Very good book. Especially relatable to our current situation. Was down right funny in some spots. ( )

The man who won the popular vote will not become president thanks to the incumbent’s slim Electoral College victory. But when Charlotte Holmes, one of Florida’s electors, announces her intention to vote her conscience rather than vote for the candidate that won Florida’s popular vote, that leaves the corrupt sitting president and an unscrupulous Florida senator fighting for the White House.

When the president has felony charges brought against the gun lobbyist, Jack Swyteck steps up to defend this “faithless elector” against the president’s hand-picked prosecutor. Can Jack keep Charlotte from going to prison? Can he keep her alive? Will she go against tradition . . . and law . . . to vote her conscience? And who will become the next occupant of the White House?

Political machinations and back-room maneuverings take center stage in this, the sixteenth outing for Miami lawyer Jack Swyteck. As always, the well-drawn characters and the strong sense of place anchor the clever narrative while the plot twists and turns keep the suspense building and Jack manages to pull off a few unexpected surprises. However, some readers are likely to find the intense political focus of this well-timed tale rather off-putting.

Recommended. ( )

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. ( )

When Democratic presidential candidate Evan Stahl wins the popular vote but loses the Electoral College by five votes, he refuses to concede. Since the Electoral College votes six weeks after the popular election, he hopes to persuade five electors to change their vote, their ability to do so open to varying legal interpretations. Florida elector Charlotte Holmes is the first to publicly declare herself a 'faithless elector' and switch from Republican incumbent Malcolm MacLeod to Stahl, unleashing a smear campaign from MacLeod as well as a hearing to determine Holmes’ fitness as an elector. She hires Jack Swyteck to defend her at the hearing, which is rife with innuendo, supposition, and fake news. When she fatally shoots a belligerent man threatening a friend, the stakes become that much higher. Throughout, MacLeod pressures the prosecuting attorney to get Holmes declared unfit by any means necessary and tweets up a storm.

This Swyteck political thriller (The Girl in the Glass Box) parallels the current political climate with a tweet-happy President and a system where a majority popular vote no longer means a win. There is an uncanny resemblance between MacLeod and Trump, both immoral, self centered, mysogynistic and tweet happy, Engrossing and scary. ( )