Woods, Stuart. The Run (2000)
HarperCollins, 352 pages, $26.00 hardcover
ISBN 0 06 019187 2
Just in time for the U.S. Presidential election comes The Run, a political thriller about a U.S. Senator’s campaign for the Presidency. Fortunately, the candidate is not Stone Barrington, but William Henry Lee, IV, of Georgia. A descendant of the first police chief of Delano, Georgia, whom we meet in Chiefs, Will Lee has appeared earlier in Run Before the Wind and Grassroots.
Senator Lee plans to run for the Presidency in eight years, after the current Vice-President has his two terms as leader. But circumstances force Lee into the running much earlier than he had anticipated. Woods paints a picture of political maneuvering that reinforces all of our suspicions about how these things are done, although Senator Lee manages to stay above the slime.
But if the corrupt behind-the-scenes politicos can’t bring Lee down, a fanatical militia member from Idaho just might do the job for them. This plot complication apparently was too complicated for Woods because he provides a climax that is too abrupt and unconvincing. This ending detracts from what is otherwise a plausible thriller.
© 2000 by Mary Daniels Brown
