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    Dead Politician Society: A Clare Vengel Undercover Novel
    Dead Politician Society: A Clare Vengel Undercover Novel
    Dead Politician Society: A Clare Vengel Undercover Novel
    Ebook342 pages3 hours

    Dead Politician Society: A Clare Vengel Undercover Novel

    By Robin Spano

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    The mayor falls down dead in the middle of a speech, and a university secret society promptly claims credit for the murder.

    Clare Vengel is given her first undercover assignment: to pose as a student and penetrate the society. She’s a mechanic in her spare time, and thinks book smarts are for people who can’t handle the real world. Instead of infiltrating the club, she alienates a popular professor, and quickly loses the respect of police superiors.

    Another politician is killed, and Clare is horrified that student idealism could be ramped up to the point of murder. She gets into gear, forging friendships with students, and a romantic involvement with a key suspect.

    When two more politicians die, Clare knows that the murderer she has to unmask is someone she has come to consider a friend. She only hopes that the friend doesn’t unmask her first.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherECW Press
    Release dateSep 1, 2010
    ISBN9781554907007
    Dead Politician Society: A Clare Vengel Undercover Novel

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    • 3/5
      When a politician is killed in Toronto rookie police officer Clare Vengel is tasked with her first undercover assignment: join the political science class at the local University where police believe someone may be, or at least know something about, the killer. An email that appears to have originated on campus was sent to a newspaper claiming responsibility for the politician’s murder on behalf of The Society for Political Utopia and it’s Clare’s job to see what she can find out. When she joins Matthew Easton’s Political Utopia for the Real World class she meets more than one person with motive for killing and when more politicians start dying she has to work fast.

      At 42 I’m probably a bit young for grumpy old woman status but if my reaction to the character of Clare is anything to go by I’ve definitely got my training wheels on. Despite being given a job she covets Clare does her best to ruin her chances of success by behaving irresponsibly, such as deliberately getting drunk while under cover and forgetting what falsehoods she has told, and berating her handler in an annoyingly childish fashion for all manner of imagined put downs. This might be quite realistic behaviour for a 22-year old but all I wanted to do was give her a slap and tell her to grow up.

      Fortunately for me though this is not one of those stories in which a single character advances all the action. In fact the book’s chapters alternate from different points of view and in addition to Clare’s we see action unfold from the perspective of Matthew (the Professor), Laura (the ex-wife of the first victim), Jonathan (one of the students in the class) and Annabel (the journalist who is in text-message contact with the person claiming to be the killer). I found the regular switching gave the book a good, fast pace as well as allowing me to get away from Clare and engage with people I found much more interesting.

      Much of the action unfolds against the backdrop of Matthew Easton’s unorthodox class in which students are divided into political parties and must from alliances, present legislation and generally operate as a parliament. Being a politics junkie I really enjoyed this aspect of the novel (I would have crawled over hot coals to be part of something like this when I studied political science myself all those years ago) and thought it offered an original spin on what is at heart a classic whodunnit. Having the students discussing and debating a range of issues allowed all sorts of possible motives to be explored as we learn about the histories and families of all the players. This kept me guessing, if not about the culprit, then about motives and the ultimate outcome right to the end.

      Dead Politician Society is well-plotted, has just the kind of social introspection that I enjoy in my reading and the characters are well drawn. The fact that I found Clare to be annoying as hell is quite realistic, I get that annoyed by real people too. If you’re in the market for a funny, fast read with a political bent then you could do a lot worse (especially if you are not a curmudgeonly old woman).
    • 3/5
      Some offensive language, but I was less worried about that and more disappointed that the story wasn't better. No, I didn't figure who the murderer was (and that is a plus in its favor), but I knew it wasn't the person who confessed. I didn't want to rush home to continue the book or even stay up late to read it. I thought the characters weren't very likable , and what was the thing going on between the undercover cop and her handler? Seems like he didn't want her to suceed. Not a successful tactic to create tension if that is what it was. Overall not a book that I would recommend.
    • 4/5
      Clare Vengel is a first year police officer in Toronto. She is sent undercover at a University as a poli-sci major to find out if any students or teachers are involved in the string of political murders. The narrative moves between Clare, a teacher that is a suspect, and a journalist that is in contact with "Utopia Girl", who may be the killer. This was not a bad debut, Clare has some definite possibilities if this takes off as a series. She is not a by the book girl and has her own baggage but is rather likable. The plot was interesting and there were plenty of suspects to choose from.
    • 5/5
      As soon as I opened the book to its first page, I was struck by how long it had been since I'd read a mystery novel. To be completely honest I left mystery novels behind in my Nancy Drew days, in favor of more fantasy books. It's still a mystery (pun intended) to me why this shift occurred, but perhaps it was what I needed at that point in time. Mystery took a back seat and I forgot how amazing it can be to become absorbed in a particularly harrowing sequence of deaths.That being said, of course you can ascertain that I found myself hooked! Clare Vengel is, in my mind, a much cooler and much more sassy Nancy Drew. She is the undercover cop I wish I was. Whereas Nancy snuck around in turtlenecks and dresses, Clare Vengel rides around on a Triumph motorcycle in leather and designer jeans. Her wit is deliciously acerbic, and she can hold her own with any man that comes her way. In other words, Clare is my kind of girl!In this first installment of Robin Spano's series, Clare is asked to pose as a college student to discover who is behind the murders of several politicians. As she navigates this new group of people, she finds herself becoming a little closer to them than she originally intended to get. I must admit that I was extremely impressed with the way the story was told. The chapters alternate between the perspectives of the people Clare finds herself amongst, and the story becomes a giant puzzle. I found myself gathering intel that even the detectives didn't have (one of the perks of being omniscient) and working to solve the murder myself. Isn't that the best part of a mystery novel? I guarantee that those who read these books often would have been able to uncover the ending, however I was blown away by it! As hard as I tried, and as eagerly as I read, I wasn't able to put together who the murderer really was. In fact, I literally gasped out loud at the end.I'll stop rambling now and end this review with what I'm sure you've already gathered (you sleuth you) from my review above. I adored this book! I am a huge fan of Clare and an even greater fan of her creator Robin Spano. I eagerly look forward to the next installment! I can't wait to see what Clare has in store for her next, or what lengths she will go to in an effort to solve it.
    • 4/5
      How far would someone go for the sake of politics? Clare Vengel is about to find out. Barely a police woman for 3 months, she is asked to go undercover as a student at the University of Toronto. The death of the mayor appears to be related to a secret student political society, and local authorities hope that Clare will be able to discover who is behind the murder. It is soon obvious that the mayor's death was part of a bigger plot as the bodies begin to pile up. It's up to Clare to find out whether the murders are being committed by an individual or the secret society itself.Clare has a lot of her own issues; she's estranged from her family and unlucky in love. She is a bit of a rebel who knows her way around cars and rides a motorcycle. She longs to work undercover and hopes that she'll do well enough on her first undercover assignment to earn her a more permanent spot taking on such jobs. Clare is a little rough around the edges, but she has determination and brains.This is the first in a new series by author Robin Spano. The author takes an interesting approach with the narrative, in particular for a series, by presenting points of view from various characters, including suspects, throughout the book. Clare is just one of the many storytellers. I thought it was a very effective way of having the mystery unfold. I wasn't too fond of any of the characters, except for Clare really, but, then, what do you expect when they all have a motive for murder?Dead Politician Society was a quick read, one I enjoyed quite a bit. What made this mystery most enjoyable for me were the characters and their many sides, as well as the unfolding of the story. While I guessed the culprit behind the murders early on, it wasn't outright obvious. And what made the resolution all the more interesting was how it played out in the end. I am definitely going to keep my eye out for the next installment in this series.

    Book preview

    Dead Politician Society - Robin Spano

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