BookView Review

MacCarthy’s gripping thriller follows two men caught in a conspiracy far larger than either realizes. After reform-minded school board candidate Adam Tanner disappears days before a crucial San Diego election, rumors begin to swirl faster than facts. Abandoned deep in the Allegheny wilderness and fighting to stay alive, Tanner becomes the center of a widening crisis that draws the attention of retired intelligence operative Ivan Samsonoff. What begins as a local political mystery soon spirals into a dangerous struggle involving covert networks, hidden agendas, and forces determined to keep certain truths buried.

MacCarthy approaches the political thriller less as a puzzle box and more as a collision between ideology, survival, and personal conviction. The novel is filled with men who distrust institutions but continue fighting within systems they believe are broken. Tanner comes across as stubborn, blunt, and increasingly overwhelmed by events far larger than his campaign. Ivan’s mixture of discipline, grief, and quiet menace gives the novel much of its momentum. MacCarthy writes him almost like a figure out of older Cold War fiction: hyper-capable, emotionally guarded, and carrying the weight of unfinished history.

Rather than relying solely on action sequences, the novel spends considerable time examining how modern political narratives are shaped, manipulated, and weaponized. Media attacks, bureaucratic maneuvering, intelligence tactics, and public outrage become as dangerous as the wilderness itself. The result is a story that feels unusually earnest in its convictions.

A muscular, politically charged thriller fueled by paranoia, survival, and conviction.

***