Power Play

Dr. Jake Ross is a handsome young adjunct astronomy professor going nowhere fast. Then he’s approached by Frank Tomlinson, a senatorial candidate looking for a photogenic science adviser. Tomlinson envisions himself as the next Kennedy and wants his own glamorous scientific cause to champion. Ross finds it in magnetohydrodynamics, a more efficient method of generating electricity. Along the way, Ross encounters two different love interests—the only major female characters in the book, both of whom sleep with their bosses—and makes a few enemies, including Tomlinson’s rival, Senator Leeds, and his thugs: deadly Ignacio “call me Nacho” Perez; and genial Benito “Monster” Falciglia. Leeds and company have all the finesse of comic-opera villains, blatantly offering Ross tenure if he sabotages Tomlinson’s campaign and threatening to murder him if he doesn’t. This is no more than an average political thriller with an advertisement for magnetohydrodynamics pasted on. Agent: Spectrum Literary Agency. (Jan.)