Commercial fiction is a curious genre.
But for those rare talents who can pull it off, the results can be marvelous. Though billed as a political thriller anchored in the Washington, D.C., establishment, Smith's book seems more character study than murder mystery. Her myriad characters are carefully wrought and empathetically constructed, and the intelligence and restraint she uses in telling their stories is rare in pop fiction. But it doesn't compromise my desire to deal with issues that mean something to me. I write about things that infuriate me.