Deception Point

It’s back to reading RA favorite books.  This has been one of the more busy years in my career as I begin to end my role as President of ACUHO-I, but all very worthwhile.  Just finished listening to Dan Brown’s Deception Point, a mystery thriller much like many of his other books.  Brown is a favorite author among many RAs as The DaVinci Code, Angels and Demons, Digital Fortress, and Inferno are on the list of books I have previously read.  This book’s setting is at the highest level of the political landscape possible, the White House.  President Zach Herney is in a fight for his political life for re-election for a second term against the powerhouse Sedgewick Sexton (no relation to the real-life Sexton at NYU, President John!). Sexton is a US Senator looking to take over as President.  Sexton’s chief assistant, a young woman (Gabriella), gives him some information that presents the continuing decline in output for the NASA expenditures of our nation, which propels Sexton upwards in the polls.  Simultaneously, President Herney is in the process of announcing earth-shattering news, NASA has found a meteor that contains living organisms!  We have found extra-terrestrial life in outer space!!   Of course, like all good Dan Brown stories, the characters are all intertwined and the race for truth, justice, and saving the lives of innocent people rue the day.  Both lead characters have lots of dangerous information that could mar their political futures.  President Herney has an evil chief of staff, Marjorie Tench, who works behind the President’s back to do anything to keep him in power, even if it means withholding the truth.  Gabriella, who regrets her one-night sex escapade with her boss (Sexton), works hard to gather more information on NASA’s new finding, which she learns is a fraud!  Of course the character that ties all this together is Rachel Sexton, the estranged daughter of the President who works for the National Reconnaissance Office, NRO, (which is similar to the CIA).  Papa Sexton and daughter Rachel have been pulled apart since her mother died in an accident while her father was having an affair on the side.  Rachel is lured into working for the President’s meteor finding by Marjorie Tench, who sees this as the best way to ruin Rachel’s father running for the Presidency.  Rachel becomes the pawn in this game of propelling her father’s enemy back to the White House.  Rachel gets flown to the site of the meteor to verify its existence.  All hell breaks loose when she and three scientists try to determine its authenticity, and find it is a fraud.  The rest of the story is a twisting-and turning tale of who knew it was fake, how does Sexton use this information for his own gain, who is trying to kill Rachel and the scientists as they attempt to escape governmental agency undercover marines…. Where will this all lead?  How will Sexton prosper to the Commander and Chief of the US, and who is behind the fake meteor?  So many stories-within-a-story!    As always, Brown is a master writer, keeping the reader on the edge of their seat with detailed moments of near-death endings for the heroine (in this case, Rachel Sexton) who in the end needs to choose between her father (whom she despises for his elicit affairs) and a President whom appears to be lying to his citizens.  I enjoyed reading and would recommend all thriller lovers to read this one.  I didn’t guess whom the villain was in this one, so was a bit surprised by the turn of events!