Washington Power Play: A Political Thriller by Allan Topol

Washington Power Play: A Political Thriller. Allan Topol. SelectBooks, Inc.. May 2017. 320 pp. ISBN #: 9781590794258.

China is planning a New World Order! A new name for a new attempt to take over both Asia and the United States.  Kelly Cameron, an FBI agent, has just completed a mission that is taken by her superiors to be both a success and a failure, a success in that she was able to stop a terrorist from committing mayhem and murder and a failure in that her killing the terrorist prevented her superiors from interviewing him to discover valuable information.  So is her sudden promotion to join a task force to find a government mole a true reward or something worse?

Kelly’s first task is to get up to speed on China, especially after a sudden attack on Japanese planes by Chinese jets.  Her first connection is with a powerful American lawyer, Andrew Martin, a man who, unknown to Kelly, has questionable ties with China as a delivery boy for secret messages to a Chinese diplomat.  Then there’s Xiang Shen, a former lover, who appears and supposedly wants to reignite their powerful connection.  Kelly’s not buying!  And Xiang has no choice but continue to pursue in order to guarantee his family’s safety back in China. A dilemma indeed!

And what about the head of the task force, General Darrell Cartwright, who desperately wants to run for President of the United States?  He’s not happy with several members of the task force and these snippy debates between the parties which are stopped one step away from being outright combat.  This seems a bit out of proportion to their task which is a clue that indeed something is rotten in Denmark.

Allan Topol knows how to ramp up the tension from the very first page. Although the reader thinks he or she knows where this is going, that’s not quite the obvious plot!  Kelly will risk death, be faced with action to save her kidnapped daughter, and discover there are more disloyal characters than one mole than she ever imagined.

Washington Power Play… is a fine political thriller with plenty of passion, debate, threats of violence and actual physical combat to keep the reader flipping the pages of this fast-paced, international power play plot!  Nicely done, Allan Topol, and definitely recommended reading!