Most doughnut-making petty crooks in Spokane don’t have to keep an eye out for mafia assassins. But Vince Camden is in the witness protection program and his sixth sense tells him that someone is gunning for him.
Jess Walter won the Edgar Award for Citizen Vince, this quirky comedy of errors thriller set on the eve of Ronald Reagan’s 1980 Presidential election.
As Vince sets out to find whoever is after him, make things right with the mob, and win the girl, he also wants to make the most of his new status as a registered voter and intelligently cast his first-ever vote. Digressions on stump speeches, the Iran hostage negotiations, campaign tactics, and the role of third-party candidates share page space with a fake credit card scheme, meetings with crime bosses, and cross-county gangland hits.
It may not stand out as the most profound political novel, but Citizen Vince is a cut above the typical thriller and 300 pages of first-rate entertainment.