CarlAlves

The Race is poorly written, not very believable, trite, and annoying to read. There was little to no credibility or positive aspects about this novel. What makes it worse was that the author clearly had a political agenda in this novel. The level of bias interfered with any possibile enjoyment. I don’t read fiction to hear about an author’s political beliefs, but Richard North Patterson clearly used this as a soapbox for him to espouse his own theories.

In this novel, Senator Corey Grace, a Republican from Ohio, who is a Gulf War hero, is in line to get the party’s nomination for the upcoming presidential race. He is opposed by some of the people pulling strings within the party. The race changes when he enters a relationship with Lexie Hart, an African American actress lobbying for stem cell research.

There is so much wrong with this novel and just about nothing right. For one thing, stem cell research is the biggest issue in the campaign, when in real life it ranks about 100th in terms of political priorities. Secondly, the characters are characaturish cartoons instead of real people. The political axe-grinding by the author is nauseating. There is nothing remotely believable about any aspect of this novel. This is one of the worst novels I have read. Don’t waste your time with it.

Carl Alves – author of Blood Street