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No Safe Place

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No Safe Place

Written by: Richard North Patterson
Narrated by: Alexander Adams
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In his first book since the national best-seller Silent Witness, Richard North Patterson uses his mastery of characterization and suspense to give us a story of startling realism and originality--an extraordinary novel of presidential politics.
        In the year 2000, Senator Kerry Kilcannon's insurgent campaign against Vice President Dick Mason has come down to the last seven days--the time remaining until the California presidential primary. Whoever wins in California is likely to win the Democratic nomination, a prize that the Vice President is determined to deny Kerry at any cost. And for all the votes and enthusiasm his passion and personal magnetism have gained him, Kerry's problems are formidable.
        He is haunted by the tragedy of his older brother, James, a presidential candidate who was assassinated in California twelve years earlier. Kerry has stumbled in his advocacy of abortion rights, and a right-to-life fanatic has pushed this explosive issue to the forefront by murdering three people at a women's clinic. In addition, a journalist for a national newsmagazine is striving to verify the lethal story that, two years ago, while still married, Kerry had a secret love affair with Lara Costello, a reporter assigned to him on Capitol Hill. And now, even more threatening, Kerry is being stalked by the abortion-clinic murderer himself.
        This narrative is seamlessly interwoven with scenes from Kerry's past: his youth as the son of a drunken and abusive father; his self-image as the less-gifted younger brother of a brilliant yet distant senator; his reluctant ascension to his brother's place; his poignant romance with Lara Costello. And when Lara is ordered against her will to cover Kerry in California, he is forced once more to evaluate his life, and the terrible cost of his ambition to become President of the United States.
        With rare authenticity, Richard North Patterson depicts the world of high-stakes presidential politics on the verge of an explosion that is as dramatic as it is thought-provoking. But No Safe Place is also a story of people at their best and at their worst: their passions, their ideals, their flaws. A novel that will hold the reader enthralled from the first to the last sentence.©1998 by Richard North Patterson; (P)1998 by Random House Audio Publishing, Inc., All Rights Reserved Under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions, Reproduced by Arrangement with Random House Audio Publishing, Inc. Genre Fiction Political Psychological Spies & Politics Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction
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What the critics say

"High drama . . . Emotion-rich characters . . . The pages turn quickly."
--The Washington Post Book World

"Engrossing . . . Ambitious and well-written, No Safe Place is a sort of ethical suspense novel."
--The Wall Street Journal

"What is striking is how exactly right Patterson gets the politics and the journalism while telling a gripping tale that intertwines abuse and betrayal, ethics and ambition, romance and dysfunction."
--The San Jose Mercury News

"Prescient . . . An important and impressive work of fiction . . . An exceptionally convincing, complex, and moving love story."
--The San Diego Union-Tribune
All stars
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Richard North Patterson isn't particularly good at foreshadowing (he telegraphs "twists" in the plot far before the climax), but his story about a relatable, both flawed & worthy of support "Center-Left" US Senator and erstwhile Presidential candidate named 'Kerry Kilcannon' is outstanding. The author's vocabulary/prose is unimpeachable, his dialogue is realistic, his description skills are impressive, and his pacing is some of the best that I have ever read - introducing/progressing/inserting plot elements and flashbacks flawlessly to drive a recurrently reinvigorated narrative.

Reader Alexander Adams likewise reads the book commendably. Random House Audio Inc. provides exemplary technical support for a performance of uncommon excellence. Adams doesn't provide very distinctive character interpretations.. but his diction, timbre, cadence, pacing, and tone are unimpeachable. This is a solid listening product.

Altogether, 'No Safe Place' has a couple of deficiencies, but merits 9 stars out of 10. I will be continuing with the Kilcannon series. Can recommend.

[Incidentally: This book is hilariously dated. Perhaps when it was written, the handwringing about sex and questionable morals torpedoing a Presidential campaign was realistic, but cheating on several wives and actuality bragging about sexually assaulting women was met with a shrug by voters who put a cartoonishly immoral guy into the Oval Office. This angst-driven plot is almost laughably unrealistic]

Great Drama-heavy Political Thriller

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