THE LATEST BOMBSHELL

Author: Michele Mitchell ISBN: 0452285445 7/2004 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: Plume-Penguin Putnam

Kate Boothe is sitting pretty in Rome, drinking good wine, and trying to take a well-deserved breather from her work as a political consultant in Washington, D.C.  Then her business partner, Jack Vanzetti, flies out to tell her that someone has been selling military secrets to the Chinese and that her least-favorite ex, muckraking reporter Lyle Gold, has been fingered as the guilty party. With the country in a state of patriotic panic, nobody is willing to take Lyle’s side.  By stepping in to defend him, Vanzetti & Boothe could finally have the big win they need in order to consult on a presidential campaign.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

For starters, THE LATEST BOMBSHELL, by Michele Mitchell, is nowhere near a romance book. A romance is eluded to with the heroine, Kate Boothe, and her Italian/Chinese mostly absent hero, Roberto. But Kate is also rumored to have been sleeping with several fellows along the way to being a political consultant. That is a romantic as this one gets.

Now that I have said what it isn't, how about telling you what THE LATEST BOMBSHELL is? It's smart, witty, funny, sad, and at times, downright scary. Scary because most Americans are like cattle being herded whatever way the government wants us to be. Americans tend to believe everything they see and hear on the news and in the newspapers. Everyone knows the media is supposed to deliver unbiased news and facts (snicker), and that people are innocent until proven guilty (LOL). Media is everything and all political players know it.

Personally, I believe the real thing this book does is try to show that a handful of people willing to do the right thing (despite many, many, setbacks and downright ugly attempts to discredit and slander their work and lives) and go after supposed "untouchables" occasionally win. Not that that ever happens in real life, or if you can call it winning when a scapegoat kills himself. But, you get the gist.

Shannon Johnson