I Lost My Nose...In A Good Book

Line of Succession - The Price of Power by Michael Vandor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received a free copy of Line Of Succession from StoryCartel.com in exchange for an honest review.

Ever since I read **Advise And Consent** by *Allen Drury* when I was a teenager, my favorite genre has been political fiction. After I finished Drury's series I was disappointed to discover that there were not other novels in this genre that even began to measure up to his. Richard North Patterson came very close with a series of his, but Drury was still the champ, in my opinion. And then along came **Line Of Succession**, and while Drury may still have the edge, Michael Vandor is definitely at the head of the class in this competition. He had me at the Prologue, and he never let go until the very end.

Kathleen Canfield is a United States Senator from California. In her youth, she was a movie star, and even though acting is no longer her profession, she is still identified as a Hollywood personality. She has a Child Care Bill she cares deeply about, and she's been informed that the Speaker of the House will defeat it if it passes the Senate. Her focus is strictly on getting her Bill passed even when the Vice-President is forced to resign because of a fraud conviction. When Kathy receives a call from the White House to meet with the President, she never expects to be told that she is the President's choice as a running mate in the upcoming election. In fact, she's flabbergasted. That is until she begins to understand that the President's plan was to use her and her squeaky clean image to get re-elected. After that is accomplished, she is kept in the background as much as possible. Until the unthinkable happens, and she becomes President.

The Speaker of the House is most distressed about Kathy sliding into a position he wanted for himself, and believed he deserves, no matter what it takes to unseat this woman who simply doesn't have the experience to take over such an important position. And since the United States and Russia are once again locked into a struggle over Bosnia, the United States needs steady, competent leadership at this crucial moment in time. This is where Vandor really shines with his descriptions of the unbearable tension going on between all those in leadership positions who have to give Kathy their best advice and put aside any personal differences for the good of the country. There are some white knuckle moments as Kathy has to consider what is best for the country and not what she herself may want to do in this situation. This is very much like the Cuban Missile Crisis where everyone waited for the other side to blink, and tension ran particularly high.

But that is not all **Line of Succession** has to offer. Kathy has a family who become part of the ongoing stress. Her son is in the military, and her husband has decided he wants to take his surgical skills to Bosnia to help the overworked doctors there. Because of his wife's job, he may be unable to get a VISA to leave this country, and compounding the problems with his status, is getting his wife to approve such a trip for him without Secret Service protection. There is also a daughter who tosses her own problems into the mix in a very creative and destructive way.

I have just one small criticism of this book, and that is I would have liked to have had a better sense of the child care bill Kathy works so hard to have passed in spite of strenuous objection from the Speaker Of The House. His only motivation for rejecting this bill is to keep Kathy in her place: we are never told what is so good or so bad about the bill. Since the child care bill is what got Kathy out from under the radar, I wanted to know what made it so attractive.

All in all **Line of Succession** is a very good novel about what it takes to be involved in government service where juggling priorities is much easier said than done. I hope Michael Vandor has more stories to tell with a political slant. I'm first in line waiting for his next book to appear on my Kindle! Definitely a 5 Star rating.

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