The Run Book

Stuart Woods's lean, taut thrillers typically feature a helping of Hollywood glitz along with a suave, sophisticated hero who gets his man and usually the girl, too. His newest is a convincing variation on that formula, featuring an eminently decent, likable hero we've met before in a couple of legal thrillers (Run Before the Wind, Grass Roots). Now Will Lee is a senator from Georgia with somewhat ambivalent aspirations to the presidency; think Bill Clinton with a stronger moral center and a more conventional marriage, to a smart, sexy wife named Kate, who happens to be a high-ranking CIA executive. When the sitting vice president, who's slated to be the party's standard-bearer in the upcoming election, tells Will in confidence that he's just been diagnosed with early Alzheimer's disease, Will decides to make the run of the title. That's good news for an imprisoned former CIA agent (think Aldrich Ames) who was Kate Lee's mentor in the agency; he knows his only possible chance for a pardon is Will's election, and he has enough dirt on the senator's rivals to blackmail them into getting out of the way. Throw in a right-wing fanatic with a long-standing grudge against Will and a determination to assassinate him before he can make it to the White House, and you have all the ingredients for a successful run at the bestseller list. But while Woods's many fans will cheer for both the author and his protagonist, that may not be enough to vault this one to the top; Will doesn't seem to have the requisite fire in the belly, and neither does Woods in what is ultimately a fairly tepid read. --Jane Adams Read More