I read the first novel in the political thriller series based on Supreme Court clerk Avery Keene, While Justice Sleeps, a year or so ago. And it was really solid. Good enough that, when I was in the mood for another of its type (which isn’t frequent, for me, but I’m having an escapist-reading kind of year, so this is sooner than I would have expected, tbh), I grabbed this second one. Which, I think, was even better than the first? 

 

This picks up just after the last novel leaves us, with Keene trying to stand against the limelight and backlash that have been following her since she exposed the president’s conspiracy-level shady-ass dealings and involvement with genocide in the name of “national defense.” Now, with that fame (notoriety?) people are coming out of the woodwork to get Avery to unmask all sorts of other suspected conspiracies. One, of course, is legit. And so we get this second novel that does a great job in bringing a new thriller plot, while still continuing the stories/development of the characters we have already gotten to know. 

 

This particular plot was more intense (for me) because it feels much closer to home, as far as the danger posed to the average person living in the US, the threat of what an attack on our electrical grid could do to cripple the nation, and as a woman, and the ever-present potential for a puffed-up jackass of a man who thinks they’re owed everything can do to take away power and ruin lives on a whim. I know this maybe isn’t great, but honestly, I love a “rogue justice” tale when the justice is against the system and it’s in support of women/those with less power…I cannot even be mad about the collateral damage. It’s just satisfying. And in this case, I also appreciated the “our messed-up system creates its own “bad guys”/antagonists” story. It’s not subtle, but absolutely believable and real. 

 

One random thing I noted that is mostly unrelated to the book itself, but has everything to do with psychologically understand people in general and, in a very real way, what is happening politically in the US right now… There was fascinating commentary on leaders getting away with doing (or even supported in doing) terrible things. Because either people supported him and don’t want to admit they were duped OR they were against him and do want to have to own up how much they let him get away with. So, the brushing it away and moving on, or trying to prove it false, or any other ignoring of cognitive dissonance, is easier on the conscious and self-image, even with all the mental gymnastics it requires. Hard truths. Phew. 

 

As far as Abrams writing, the attention to and inclusion of complex details remains strong here. There are so many moving pieces and perspectives in the unfolding of this political thriller and her intellect continues to astound. Side bar: the double meaning title is very well done again. I am glad I had the audiobook to move me through, so I didn’t bog myself down in eyeball-reading all those details. But with the audiobook at hand, I sped through the listen in like, two days. I couldn’t stop. There is so clearly an opening for a third book – with an antagonist that I am glad is still on the table from this novel, and two that I wish had been more permanently removed from the first - and I will definitely be reading it if/when we get it. 

 

 

 

“One of the threats of the modern age was incredulity. Even at the highest levels of power, leaders habitually, instinctively, rejected the improbable as wholly impossible, and they grounded their doubt in a phony pessimism that cloaked blind hope.”