Jerome Teel, The Divine Appointment

The Divine Appointment

Jerome Teel

Howard (Simon & Shuster), June 2007, 352 pp.

ISBN 1416543384

The most liberal Supreme Court justice has died and the president, a right-wing, pro-life politician, nominates Dunbar Shelton to replace her. He is considered right of the mainstream conservatives and the Democratic Senate won't let his nomination out of committee. Politics makes for strange bedfellows when the President's chief of staff agrees not to support Republican candidates, thus causing a Democratic majority in the next election, with the Senate majority leader.

Stella Hanover, leader of the National Federation for Abortion Rights, a powerful and heavily funded lobby group, uses every dirty trick in the book and breaks some laws to increase the heat on the leader of the senate, Senator Proctor to withdraw his support of the candidate. In Tennessee, a young lawyer is killed in her apartment and. Tag, a skilled physician, is arrested for her murder. He is represented by Eli Faulkner and Jill Baker who connect his case to the events happening in Washington. Jill flies to Washington to team up with Holland Fletcher who has part of the story; between the two of them they come up with answers that could get them killed.

Whether one agrees with the President's stand on abortion or not, nobody could doubt the convictions of his feelings on the issue. He stands up to what he believes is morally right which makes the audience admire, if not like, him. The sad part of THE DIVINE APPOINTMENT is that the audience will believe the events in this tale could happen. Jerome Teel writes a totally awesome and exciting political thriller that shows how low and dirty politics and its players can get.

Harriet Klausner