Voting is Murder

 

Are you a political junkie but tired of all the seemingly endless BidenClintonMcCainObamaPalin madness? How about escaping the mystery of real-life politics and instead leaping into a fictional version, if just for a little while.

Considering how high the emotions have been running during this 2008 election cycle, it's hard to believe that more mysteries and crime fiction novels haven't been based around election-themed plots. After all, how many politicians out there have wished their opponent would simply drop dead? (Of natural causes, of course, God rest their souls.)

But a few authors have taken up the voting gauntlet and created stories that would make Machiavelli proud. Here's a listing:

• Larry Beinhart, The Librarian (2004). How on earth did nebbish university librarian David Goldberg end up on Virginia's Ten Most Wanted Criminals list for bestiality? And how did he get ensnared in a vast right-wing conspiracy to steal the presidency?
• Gail Bowen, The Brutal Heart (2008). With a general election just weeks away, Joanne Kilbourn is following the campaign of Ginny Monaghan, a woman who has her eyes set on the leadership of the federal Conservative Party and whose success depends, not so much on the election-day poll, but on the outcome of a custody battle she’s fighting with her ex.
• Mark Coggins, Runoff (2007). How much does it cost to fix an election? That's the question uppermost in PI August Riordan's mind when Leonora Lee, the notorious, near-mythic Dragon Lady of San Francisco's Chinatown, hires Riordan to look into the city's mayoral election after her candidate finishes in single digits. Lee suspects someone has been tampering with newly installed touch-screen voting machines but only has until the runoff election, less than a week away, to find the answers.
• Silvia Foti, Skullduggery (2002). Supernatural reporter Alexandria Vilkas who launches a feature on a Crystal Skull, but is skeptical of its metaphysical powers---until the Chicago mayor dies in her arms. Now the prime suspect in the mayor's murder, Alex needs to clear her name, fast, if she hopes to live until the next election.
• Ed Gorman, Sleeping Dogs (2008). A seasoned politico works on the re-election campaign of a US senator with a reputation for sleeping around. A major televised debate proves to be a disaster for the senator, followed by the murder of a sleazy political op who knows something about the candidate that could completely destroy his career.
• Patricia Hall, Death by Election (2005). That quintessentially British institution, the brief, hotly contested by-election, forms the background for Hall's drama, in which an explosive combination of electoral and sexual politics engenders blackmail, suicide, and murder.
• Betsy Hartmann, Deadly Election (2008). A mysterious suicide in a military prison; a president whose thirst for alcohol may overwhelm his thirst for power; a White House advisor who takes matters into his own hands--With the country's future in the balance, a Supreme Court justice, a young congressional aide and a grieving mother are swept into a fight for their ideals-and their lives.
• Henry Kisor, Cache of Corpses (2007). Deputy Steve Martinez--Lakota Indian by birth, Porcupine City, Michigan, native by association--has investigated many crimes, but none more surprising than the case before him now. When clues at the first crime scene lead to a second headless corpse, Steve realizes this is someone's twisted idea of a game. And these events couldn't come at a worse time: the election for county sheriff is fast approaching and the sudden rash of bodies is just the sort of ammunition Steve's opponent is all too eager to use against him.
• Rob Loughran, High Steaks (2003). Davis O'Kane thought his fall from grace had reached its lowest point, with an impending divorce and a custody battle for his twin daughters, but then he finds a dead body in his restaurant in Nightingale, Nevada.  High Steaks propels the reader into the realm of crooked horse racing, cheating the roulette wheel, and murder as hot as a Nevada summer, set against a backdrop of the town's first contested mayoral race in decades.
• Brian McGrory, The Incumbent (2000). As he lies in the hospital, the day after being caught in the crossfire of a presidential assassination attempt, journalist Jack Flynn has some serious questions. With just eleven days until the election, it's becoming clear that he has stumbled into the middle of a far-reaching conspiracy.
• Barbara Michaels, Smoke and Mirrors (1989). The enthusiasm and idealism of Erin Hartsock, a young campaign worker, dissolves into terror when the campaign takes a malevolent turn. Someone has begun threatening Erin and her colleagues first with strange fires, then a seemingly accidental death.
• Ridley Pearson, Killer Weekend (2007). New York State attorney general Elizabeth Shaler, a political lightning rod, is expected to announce her candidacy for president at a conference in Sun Valley. Authorities learn of a confirmed threat on her life, and the Secret Service, the FBI, and local forces begin jockeying for jurisdiction.
• Gary Phillips, editor, Politics Noir (2008) Thirteen crime stories with political themes including "Collateral Damage" by Robert Greer. 
• Dana Stabenow, The Singing of the Dead (2001). When a Native American candidate for Alaska state senator starts receiving anonymous threats, PI Kate Shugak allows herself to be talked into a temporary bodyguard stint. The first body to turn up is the candidate’s fundraiser and future son-in-law.
• Jerome Teel, The Election (2005). Ed Burke has waited a lifetime to become president of the United States. He's not about to let his nemesis, Mac Foster, stop him now...especially when he's sold his soul for the Oval Office.
• Marilyn Wallace, Primary Target (1988) A female presidential candidate is threatened by a radical political group called The Brotherhood of Men. 
• Jeff Walter, Citizen Vince (2005). Vince has landed in eastern Washington via the witness-protection plan, and he is starting to like the simple pleasures, including receiving his first voter-registration card. So even when a hit man, a local cop, and Mob-boss-in-waiting John Gotti get Vince in their crosshairs, he keeps trying to figure out if he should pull the lever for Reagan or Carter.
• Charlene Weir, Up in Smoke (2003). Police Chief Susan Wren is a relative newcomer to Hampstead, Kansas. When the governor decides to kick off his campaign for the presidential nomination with a homecoming rally in town, he finds his efforts complicated by a local murder in which he and a campaign worker are implicated.
• Valerie Wolzien, Elected for Death (1996). Hancock, Connecticut--a historic enclave of wealth and conservatism--is in the final heat of a three-way mayoral election when long-shot candidate Ivan Deakin takes a sip of cyanide-laced water and is retired to the morgue. His murder exacerbates an already fierce controversy over proposed changes in rules governing the landmark status of local real estate--changes that would drastically alter property values.