Ex-Special Operations and current Supreme Court Police officer Jason Lancaster awakens from what he assumes was a rough night of heavy drinking. Only thing is, Jason’s been sober for years and hasn’t touched a drop. He shunts aside the mystery for now and, late for work, he hustles to the Supreme Court Building. The explosion that rocks the Supreme Court building kick-starts FOUR SEATS into overdrive. Jason is framed for helping plant the bombs and, thanks to his night of drinking, he has no proof otherwise. Jason works to discover the truth, stay alive, and find his missing love. Meanwhile, the nation reels from the terrorist attacks. The perpetrators remain unknown for most of the story. Behind the scenes, however, several people begin putting events in motion. Rosemarie Irving, ex-First Lady, manipulates her way into influencing the new Supreme Court Justice nominees. The current President works on finding the terrorists, dealing with political assault, and the upcoming election. A private security firm, similar to the infamous Blackwater, functions as the police/fire for the struggling city of Detroit. The security firm adds another layer of manipulation as they seek to gain governmental approval to attack Iran. All these seemingly disparate threads weave back and forth through this episodic novel to a stunning conclusion.
FOUR SEATS is literally a television show in book form. The novel is basically six parts that function as self-contained episodes and chapters in the overall story. Part One flows just like the pilot episode of a television show, introducing the main characters and then blowing up something to capture the attention. This works really well for the novel. The action is explosive, the plot decently paced, and the tension steadily ratchets up with each new revelation.
The characters are a bit static, but ultimately interesting enough to follow through the twisty episodes. While the book could stand to have a round of editing, the prose is engaging with very minor plotting issues. The first two parts are taut and suspenseful, but the story begins to unspool sloppily. While initial episodes start with careful, subtle foreshadowing, later sections suffer from information overload, such as the motivations of Rosemarie and Miranda. These revelations could have been interspersed at better intervals.
FOUR SEATS is a captivating political thriller that feels like a fleshed out script.
~IndieReader.