Advance Booklist Review of Stranglehold

Advanced Review – Uncorrected Proof

Gorman, Ed (Author) Oct 2010. 240 p. Minotaur/Thomas Dunne, hardcover, $24.99. (9780312532987).

Dev Conrad, a political consultant, is curious why his client, a congresswoman seeking reelection, is behaving oddly and disappearing for hours at a time. Following the woman to a motel, he observes her entering a room and then leaving it again, 10 minutes later. When Dev checks out the room and finds (literally) a bloody mess, he starts to wonder just what his client is hiding. This is a neat little political mystery with a likable protagonist—Dev Conrad, who also starred in Gorman’s Sleeping Dogs (2008), evokes some of Ross Thomas’ savvy political fixers—and a nicely rounded cast of supporting characters. The congresswoman, Susan Cooper, is very well drawn, as is her domineering stepmother, Natalie Dowd McConnell Cooper Byrnes, whose antics distract us from some of the subtle things the author is doing beneath the surface of the story. (Expect some surprises.) Gorman is an experienced and accomplished storyteller, and genre fans will not want to miss his latest.
— David Pitt