"At eight in the morning of his last day in Boston, Sean Burke paced out tight circles on the corner of Kenmore Square, waiting for the abortionist, a nine-millimeter semiautomatic handgun hidden in the inside pocket of his army jacket."
At the outset of his first novel since his bestseller, "Silent Witness," Patterson separates research and imagination. "No Safe Place" is not a roman a clef, but a work of fiction. He worked out all the elements of the plot in 1995. It is, however, difficult to find the dividing line between fact and fiction in this work that seems to take its heading from the front pages of newspapers around the world. Once more, I feel a novelist has looked beyond the veil into the immediate future. Prefigures, if you prefer, rather than reflects any political events thereafter.
"No Safe Place," begins with the tragic, murderous attack on an abortion clinic in Boston. Then, jumps headlong into the last seven days of a critical presidential primary election in California. Here Patterson tackles a plethora of volatile social issues within a framework of personal stories. Politics, like rust, never sleeps.
Kerry Kilcannon still has nightmares of his older brother's assassination which took place here 12 years ago as he, too, ran for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. Readers will remember James Kilcannon from Patterson's novel "Private Screening."
Don't make the mistake of comparing Kerry and James to the Kennedy brothers. The author, says that there is no intent to retell those earlier events. Kerry Kilcannon is no caricature. He is a complex and intriguing man who faces tough issues most politicians avoid. His pursuit of old-fashioned ideals of truth and justice are all but arcane in the year 2000, yet the people love him. He aggravates the pro-choice and right-to-life activists alike, and takes on the most powerful lobby in American politics with his views on gun control. This character takes on controversy as courageously as Daniel in the lion's den. Like all great leaders of men, Kerry is not without his flaws. The question is, will his flaws overcome him and bring defeat when the nomination is all but in his hands?
Vice President Dick Mason is Kilcannon's opponent in the California primary. Mason's wife and children, and the fact he's been vice president for eight years all work in his favor. Mason is a good man, for the most part, an honest man, but even he is not above the seduction of political intrigue.
Patterson fills his story with so many well-drawn characters it is difficult to choose which ones to illuminate here. You must remember the name Sean Burke for you will see him in the beginning and later in the story. Then, there is Nate Cutler, a part of the press that travels with Kilcannon's campaign. His ambition overcomes his objectivity. Clayton Slade, a friend of Kilcannon's for fifteen years, is the Campaign Manager and hopes to become the first black Attorney General. One other outstanding member of this cast is Lara Costello, a Broadcast News
reporter for NBC. Lara and Kerry have a past together that could disrupt the entire election.
The story heats to the passion point, then just before you step over a cliff, Patterson pulls you back 36 years to Newark, New Jersey. The author, not content to keep his story in present time, uses flashbacks to give you a better understanding of what drives Kerry Kilcannon toward his goal of becoming president.
Patterson takes readers inside political strategy meetings. They have all the excitement and cruelty of a flash flood. The candidate -- the spin -- the win -- all gush over the meetings. One objective stands out first get the "man" elected, then he can do what's right.
The humanity of Kerry Kilcannon was most touching to me. A man who, given the opportunity, might be a great leader. Strangest of all, are the issues raised in "No Safe Place": political and sexual misconduct, public images and the right to privacy, abortion, gun control, domestic abuse, gay rights, illegal immigration, campaign finance reform. All of these issues are today's headlines. Yet, Richard North Patterson wrote of them two years before we the people even knew what was coming toward us.
Do I recommend this novel? Yes, indeed, I do. "No Safe Place," proves that out of great evil, when justice is tempered with common sense, good arises and Democracy prevails.
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(Jones is a published writer & literary critic)
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