WASHINGTON, July 1, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Political pros aren't fools when it comes to buying a Senator. They know the same ambition that drives someone to run for the United States Senate causes the would-be candidate to suffer from selective amnesia about dirty little secrets from way back when. That's why the candidate's "exploratory committee" secretly hires a research firm to "get there first with the worst" before the decision is made to launch the campaign and expose the candidate's background to opposition researchers and investigative journalists. There's no point in investing big bucks in a candidate with a ticking time bomb in his or her past.
This peculiar Washington "dark art" is "counter-oppo" research. The researcher in The Weldon File is Morris Jackson Rives, who has been content to live off his trust fund, desultorily work on his doctoral dissertation at an Ivy League university, and carry on an affair with Karen Moore, the trophy wife of the dean of the business school. But Morris's sweet deal turns sour after Karen, following a Scotch soaked tryst, hits and kills a hitchhiker. Morris allows himself to be implicated in the "cover-up," which he increasingly regrets -- all the more so after he learns Karen may be trying to set him up as the hit-and-run driver. So Morris jumps at the chance to return home to Washington when his uncle, Jack Rives, a Washington "power broker," offers Morris a job with Minder Associates, a counter-oppo research firm which just landed a plum assignment, on the fast track.
The candidate is the former lieutenant governor of Virginia, Larry Weldon, the "whitest of white hats." After serving two terms, Weldon declined to run for governor. Instead, Weldon returned to the high school where he had been a history teacher and football coach. Weldon is reported to be considering allowing himself to be drafted to run against the incumbent Republican Senator.
Morris follows the trail to Gilead, South Carolina, Weldon's hometown, where for five years Weldon was a highly successful young attorney. He abruptly abandoned the practice of law to start a new life in Virginia. The ostensible reason is Weldon's acceptance of a "calling" to devote his life to helping youth as a high school teacher and football coach. But Morris learns of the possibility of will fraud in which Weldon may be implicated, possibly inadvertently, followed by a death that may have been a murder.
While Morris is pursuing Weldon's past, Morris' past is pursuing him. It suddenly becomes clear why Uncle Jack wanted a rookie for this particular job.
The New York Times described Mac Canter's first novel, The Indictment, as "seductively well-written." Booklist described The Indictment as a "taut complex thriller that's laced with clever one-liners...an exceptional first novel that librarians should be touting to the legions of fans of Ross Thomas, John Grisham, and Michael Malone." Library Journal described the novel as "impressive, polished. Highly recommended, especially for libraries with Southern fiction collections." Of The Indictment, the Richmond Times-Dispatch said, "Imagine John Grisham could write well, and you have a rough idea of what MacKenzie Canter's first novel, The Indictment...is like."
The Weldon File * by Mac Canter
Publication Date: June 30, 2009
Trade Paperback; $19.99; 223 pages; 978-1-4415-3061-5
Cloth Hardback; $29.99; 223 pages; 978-1-4415-3062-2
To request a complimentary paperback review copy, contact the publisher at (888) 795-4274 x. 7479. Tear sheets may be sent by regular or electronic mail to Marketing Services. To purchase copies of the book for resale, please fax Xlibris at (610) 915-0294 or call (888) 795-4274 x. 7876. For more information, contact Xlibris at (888) 795-4274 or on the web at www.Xlibris.com.