Shining City

Peter Rena is a “fixer.” With his partner, Randi Brooks, he is hired by the powerful elite to make problems disappear. Whether it’s the Speaker of the House looking to get a scandal-ridden congresswoman to resign or the NFL calling about an out of control quarterback, Rena and Brooks have the skill, toughness, and discretion to get it done quickly and quietly.

They get their biggest job yet when the White House hires them to vet the president’s nominee for the Supreme Court. Judge Roland Madison is a legal giant—Dean of Stanford Law, district court judge, and now federal appellate judge—but he’s a political maverick, with views that might make the already tricky confirmation process that much more difficult. Rena and his team of investigators go full-bore to cover every inch of the judge’s past, all while the competing factions of Washington D.C. mobilize with frightening intensity: groups on the left and the right, ambitious senators, garrulous journalists, and wily power players of all stripes.

But none of that matters when a string of seemingly random killings overlaps with Rena’s investigation, putting Judge Madison right in the crosshairs. Racing against the clock to keep his nominee safe, the President satisfied, and the political wolves at bay, Rena learns that Washington’s obsession with power—how to get it and how to keep it—is a dangerous game.

Written with razor-sharp political insight and heart-pounding action, Shining City is a hugely impressive debut that announces a major new talent.