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THE ZERO GAME
by Brad Meltzer
Hodder and Stoughton, January 2004
496 pages
14.99GBP
ISBN: 0340825014


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Brad Meltzer has ably demonstrated his ability to thrill in his previous four books, but to my mind, he has excelled himself in THE ZERO GAME. Meltzer, a law graduate, boasts an intimate knowledge of the mechanical workings and architecture of Washington politics.

His knowledge is easier to understand when one learns he was, as a teenager, an intern on Capitol Hill. Meltzer always pays tribute to those who help him in his research but one must wonder how much detail the younger Meltzer was storing away in those not too distant days and if he had any idea to what use he would later put it.

The story opens in a men's toilet. Matthew Mercer and Harris Sandler, having spent years working on Capitol Hill, are endeavouring to alleviate their boredom. Harris, always possessed of a spirit of mischief, plays a daring practical joke on a congressman who is also obeying the importunings of nature, thus earning further respect from onlookers. While both Matthew and Harris are momentarily diverted they realise boredom will set in again immediately but Harris thinks he has a remedy for that.

Six months later Matthew and Harris are both involved in the Zero Game. They have gambled all their money on attaching a small clause to a larger bill and if that suceeds -- authorising the go-ahead for a gold mine in South Dakota -- they stand to make a great deal of money. Matthew is instrumental in the wheeling and dealing which will see the bill pass -- and is also responsible for passing the bank cheques to finance their gamble through to the shadowy masters of the Game. Matthew hands the envelope to an innocent-seeming page but something doesn't seem right about the page so, mindful that a great deal hinges on the envelope he has just handed over, he pursues the page -- with fatal consequences.

Harris finds the identity badge of a page, Viv Parker, and decides she can help in revealing the fate of his friend. Inadvertently, he enmeshes the 17-year-old in a violent adventure as they are stalked by a very strange, almost physically invincible killer who employs a dinky little machine powered by double A batteries to induce heart attacks in his victims. Clever!

Viv embarks on the adventure, full of innocence and enthusiasm and an obvious crush on Harris. To me, part of the drama of the tale was the stripping away of the girl's innocence and her rapid acquisition of the jaded disillusionment that had previously gripped Matthew and Harris. The two travel to South Dakota and manage to uncover just what is happening in the depths of the mine. A warning to the unwary reader -- if you are at all prone to claustrophobia, trip lightly through the scenes at the mine! In addition, the squeamish reader may find herself suffering pangs of nausea at the detail of the fights.

The book is told in a mixture of first person present (a tactic Meltzer has employed previously) and third person past tense. The immediacy of the first person narrative is undeniable and it is a good ploy to enhance the surprises of the story. Harris and Viv encounter shocks at every turn. Perhaps the biggest shock is revealed at the conclusion: I doubt it will spoil anyone's pleasure for me to say that it is not a physical surprise. One small criticism, which is, perhaps, based on my ignorance, but I felt the initial premise, that the gold mine must be included in the bill, fell short given what Harris and Viv found when they reached the mine.

I doubt I would be the only aficionado of crime fiction to rejoice that Mr Meltzer is not wasting his time in the practice of law but has turned his talent instead to writing outstanding fiction.

Reviewed by Denise Wels Pickles, February 2004

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