Rex Nash tells his love interest Jessica Roark that he’s had it with running political campaigns. He’s done working himself to death for a single cause and losing sight of the bigger picture of life. While Rex is in D.C. and Jessica in North Carolina, they hope to eventually wind up in the same location where they can accelerate their burgeoning relationship. Meanwhile in Panama, a cutthroat race for the presidency is underway. A world leader in political corruption, Panama embraces three major candidates who run aggressive campaigns. The incumbent president Martinez of the Partido Popular party is challenged by grass-roots candidate Raul Vasquez of the Molirena party, and Diago Dopazo who represents the PRD. When political polling guru Charles Lee makes an offer to Rex to run the Bob Haskins U. S. congressional campaign—complete with a house and office space in Asheville, North Carolina where his beloved Jessica lives—it is one he can’t refuse. Things seem to go well for Rex in Asheville in both his professional and personal life until his world falls apart when Haskin fires him for “not clicking” well enough with him, and Jessica unexpectedly dumps him.
Not long after losing his job and woman, Rex hears from Charles again, this time about running the political campaign for Raul Vasquez in Panama. With no better offers in hand, he accepts the position and moves to Panama City—a place according to Vasquez that is full of drug dealers, fugitives, con artists, terrorists, and mobsters. He works tirelessly on the campaign until one day a group of protesters gets completely out of hand by breaking into the National Assembly, burning other buildings, and setting off a bomb in the apartment building he and Vasquez are in. When Vasquez is injured by the blast and rushed off to a hospital, Rex inexplicably becomes the chief suspect in the explosion.
Jonathan Snowling’s DISTORTED PERCEPTION provides insight into the Panamanian cultural and political world in a story with endless intrigue, excitement, action, and danger intertwined with a compelling plot. A countless number of intense, gripping scenes that includes chases, torture, kidnappings, and murders confirms that no one can be trusted. The characters–who are believable, memorable, and layered in personality and history–drive the story. Their motivations are made clear by their actions and the significance of the events that develop. The author is an expert in incorporating the “show, don’t tell” rule of writing into the narrative, allowing readers to experience the story through action, dialogue, and description rather than telling them what to believe.
Jonathan R. Snowling does an exemplary job at luring readers into the corrupt inner workings of Panamanian politics in DISTORTED PERCEPTION, an intriguing political thriller with a large cast of intense characters, dangerous situations and political intrigue.
~Florence Osmund for IndieReader