It is May during a tumultuous election year as law student Deke Marshall works a part-time desk job in Ohio’s statehouse. The governor, Big Ed Thomas, and the president of the United States, Jake Stryker, are both running for reelection. With the economy in bad shape, the American people may just be ready for change.

One night during a lust-filled tryst with the governor’s assistant, Suzi Saito, Deke learns the governor—who is intertwined in a tight race with a wealthy opponent—may be involved in a scandal. As Deke is unwittingly drawn into a web of lies and deceit that includes organized crime, insider trading, sex, and corrupt political dealings, Suzi is raped and murdered. Someone is offering a hundred Gs for information leading to her killer—and a certain tape recording. While Deke sets out to avenge her death and save the governorship and presidency, he soon realizes that bad people sometimes have good in them—except when it comes to notorious mobster, Sammy Ferretti.

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