Rosenstiel's Latest is More Thoughtful than Thrilling

 The Days to Come - Tom Rosenstiel

Everyone knows Washington, D.C., is gridlocked. At least it was until David Traynor was elected POTUS. Like a recent real-world president, Traynor had campaigned as a disrupter; but unlike that president he intended to disrupt for people instead of party; so much so that he chose his running mate from the opposition. One of the reasons their campaign succeeded is the team of Rena and Brooks, the investigation/image firm that saved the career of Traynor’s VP. But even as the new president set out to change the way government works (for the better…), Peter Rena’s world began crumbling around him.

Some denizen of the Dark Web had Rena in the crosshairs; and the phony cyberattacks were both relentless and vicious, so much so that Rena became persona non grata with anyone who cared about a public image. Washington is, after all, less interested in truth than in optics. It didn’t help Rena’s wounded pride that his love life seemed to be circling the drain at the same time.

Nonetheless, Peter and his partner Randi Brooks had an important job to do; keeping a top-secret Traynor program on track, a program that just might help solve the climate crisis. No matter what the cyberattacks were saying, Rena was on the case; ferreting out industrial espionage in the halls of Silicon Valley… where knowing too much might get you dead.

Tom Rosenstiel’s fourth Rena thriller, The Days to Come, picks up where Oppo left off; with the election of the Traynor-Wendy Upton ticket. Unlike that previous installment, however, Rena is the target this time… he just doesn’t know why (or who). Rosenstiel delivers a concise analysis of how such attacks begin, flourish, and ultimately play out in “meatspace”: think Comet Ping Pong, right down to the gun-toting true believer looking for secret basement pedophilia chambers.

Rosenstiel also devotes considerable page space to his character’s project to make the USA a leader in energy storage; arguing that present-day battery technology is hampering any move to renewable energy. The solution, according to the book, is flow-battery technology. Little of the science is discussed, however, as there are mainly references to the technology.

Apparently not content with those two threads to his narrative, Rosenstiel also introduces some ideas for how to get Congress of its rear and back to work for the people (all of them). First is a Scandinavian model of legislation: lean bills with short timelines instead of bloated, encyclopedic lists of pork. More interesting, however, is doing away with the so-called “Hastert Rule,” also known as “the majority of the majority” – a means by which any hope of compromise in Congress is summarily executed by party leaders.

While Rosenstiel’s tale is most definitely topical, the four threads – corporate espionage, cyberattacks, Rena’s gloomy demeanor, the battery technology – still add up to a slow journey through Rena’s personal misery. That measured pace is probably why none of the usual suspects has labeled the plot “propulsive,” for good reason: It isn’t. It barely reaches the threshold of political thriller. Instead, it’s more brains than brawn, just like its protagonist.

And that's not a bad thing: we need more thought and less action these days.

copyright © 2021 scmrak

I received an advance reader’s copy of The Days to Come in exchange for my honest review.