“Pepper comes through again with this clever tale of how cyber sabotage of elections, coupled with highly concentrated ownership of traditional media operations, can undermine American democracy.”–President Bill ClintonA twisty, one-step-ahead-of-the-headlines political thriller featuring a rogue reporter who investigates election meddling of epic proportions written by the ultimate insider.… ultimate insider.
Investigative reporter Jack Sharpe is down to his last chance. Fired from his high-profile gig with a national news channel, his only lead is a phone full of messages from a grad student named Tori Justice, who swears she’s observed an impossible result in a local election. Sharpe is sure she’s mistaken…but what if she isn’t?
Sharpe learns that the most important tool in any election is the voter file: the database that keeps track of all voters in a district, and shapes a campaign’s game plan for victory. If one person were to gain control of an entire party’s voter file, they could manipulate the outcome of virtually every election in America. Sharpe discovers this has happened–and that the person behind the hack is determined to turn American politics upside down.
The more he digs, the more Sharpe is forced to question the values–and viability–of the country he loves and a president he admired. And soon it becomes clear that not just his career is in jeopardy…so is his life.
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Believable, evocative, and shiver-inducing. As timely as tomorrow’s headline, written by a man who knows exactly what he’s talking about. It’s also as unpredictable as a riptide, bringing what is a clear and present threat to modern democracy into pristine focus. Read and be warned.
“The Voter File” is the perfect read for an election year. It blurs the line between fact and fiction, and reads almost like tomorrow’s headlines. Politics is a crazy game, and one never knows what might happen.
Data gathering and analyzing is Tori Justice’s area of expertise, and when she looks at the results of a recent special election, she knows something is wrong, very wrong. She seeks the help of former TV reporter Jack Sharpe, now a freelance investigator. It is a long shot of a story, but if true, it will resurrect his fading career. Together they dig into political campaigns and the cesspool of political influence that surrounds them. It is politics, so they expect a certain amount of superficial appearances, but they discover that someone is accessing databases housing the private information of millions of Americans in a nefarious hidden agenda to win hundreds of up‑coming small elections all over The United States.
The story is fast paced with most happening over a week or so, and the action bounces from Wisconsin and Ohio to settings in Utah, New Jersey, and even Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Washington, D.C. It is an intense journey. People are rigging the outcomes of elections, and Justice and Sharpe fight to protect both themselves and their story.
“The Voter File” is democracy at its best and worse, the “free press” strives against all odds to uncover corruption, and the political machine squashes everyone and everything in its path to achieve its goal. I received a review copy of “The Voter File” from David Pepper, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, and Penguin Publishing Group It will validate everything you love about politics, and expose everything you hate about politics. The book has no hidden political agenda other than to compel readers to VOTE in every election, both local and national, no matter for whom, just vote.
P.S. Look for the best secret password “Cedar Point,” one of my favorite amusement parks, located on the shores of Lake Erie.
Drawing on his insider experience, David Pepper takes us into the dark underbelly of American elections — how campaigns use psychological warfare to target voters to the edge of the law, and beyond.
Very timely considering our time.
THE VOTER FILE by David Pepper is the third book in the Jack Sharpe political thriller series. Jack Sharpe is an investigative reporter that has exposed several political scandals. However, when he and his national news channel collide, he is out of a job and doing freelance reporting for his old newspaper. Tori Justice worked on a campaign for a judge that should have won, but didn’t. Her data gathering and analysis skills point to a problem. When the two finally connect and decide to work together, they never knew where it would lead.
Jack and Tori are strong main characters with some depth and someone you can root for. I believe that reading the first two books in the series first would provide even more dimension to Jack. Their goals were clear and definitely influenced the plot with believable motivations. The prose was well-written and thought-provoking. The plot was suspenseful, complex and fast-paced. The ending was impactful.
Overall, this book was unforgettable due to the timeliness of the topics covered and the excellent prose. Themes included everything from murder, election meddling, the loss of family farms, the acquisition of small local or regional banks to national or global institutions, the rise of media and tech giants, and great investigative journalism. I look forward to reading more books in this series.
I won a digital copy of this book in a Goodreads Giveaway. Thanks go to Goodreads, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, and David Pepper for the opportunity to provide an honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.
Pepper comes through again with this clever tale of how cyber sabotage of elections, coupled with highly concentrated ownership of traditional media operations, can undermine American democracy.