Spin

Plunging into California politics armed with a lethal tongue and a taste for power, Gulf War veteran Jim Asher lands a plum role in Republican Edward Winston's bare-knuckle Senate campaign. Learning spin control from the master -- Bud Raper, the crude hired gun who catapulted both Reagan and Bush into the Oval office -- Jim quickly becomes the hottest new political consultant west of the Washington Beltway, an Armani-clad Machiavelli who snaps up the perks of a six-figure salary and illicit liaisons with everyone from loyal party girls to roving celebrity reporters. Through it all, Jim keeps his eyes on the ultimate prize -- Washington.

But when the stakes of the game are raised, Jim comes face-to-face with an unexpected nemesis: his own conscience. With more than one shark prowling the waters, Jim is forced to risk everything -- a choice that threatens to trigger a political shakedown of epic proportions.

An unforgettable chronicle of political seduction, Spin is a whip-smart look at a world of thrilling excess, raw power, and utter ruthlessness -- laying bare the American democratic process in action, and in the flesh.

Tom Lowe worked as an aide in Michael Huffington's 1994 run for the Senate in California, and later became the youngest person ever to serve as director of public affairs for the speaker of the California Assembly. He has written for The McLaughlin Group in Washington, appeared in two Hollywood films, and fought in Operation Desert Storm. Spin is his first novel. He lives in Newport Beach, California.

Tom Lowe can be reached at noveltom@earthlink.net