2005

A little too macabre. I picked this one up because I enjoyed First Counsel, an earlier book by Meltzer so much. This one was disappointing. ( )

Two political staffers in Washington, D.C. are caught up in a mysterious secret game - a theoretically harmless bet on peripheral issues going through Congress. The Zero Game ends up causing the death of one of Harris Sandler's good friends, so Harris goes into hiding. Soon he and a Congressional page find themselves on the run from a dangerous assassin as they try to discover the secret behind the game that people are willing to kill for.

The Zero Game was pretty much what you would expect from a political thriller. It was fast-paced and engrossing - you never had to wait too long for the next danger to pop up around the corner.

The shifting points of view had its good points and bad. It certainly adds to some of the surprise, but it also was a bit disconcerting to the reader. I don't like getting attached to one narrator only to switch to someone else.

I enjoyed the ultimate mystery and how it was set up, and the show-down wasn't disappointing. But, as with most of these types of thrillers, there was nothing about the mystery that was particularly memorable.

More posted at my blog. ( )

THis book started slowly and at one point I was thinking of putting it away and then WHAM!! what a plot turn !There were part of the book that were a little unbelievable but overall good the blurb on the back of the book did not resemble the story at all .One wonders who writes them and when

Average grade mystery / thriller set in Washington DC. Good book for business traveling: it's entertaining, but if you lose it along the way, it's no great loss. ( )