The Zero Game

By Brad Meltzer

When I bought the John Nance books earlier this year off ebay, they came with a handful of Brad Meltzer books. Now that I've finished with the JN books I thought I'd give them a try.

I was probably about 70 pages into this book before the story started to pick up. I was honestly thinking about setting this book done, but as I only had this book and 2 magazines to get me through the next 4 days I persisted. I'm glad I did!

At the start The Zero Game takes you into the offices of the staffs of Congress. Our main character Matthew Mercer is a staffer on the House Appropriation Committee. The story goes into detail about how amendments are added to bills and funded. It's all decided by staffers in the end. Makes you feel good no? Well I thought the information was interesting but I didn't see how I could make it through 468 pages of subcommittee meetings. Then Matthew Mercer is murdered. Yeah I guess he wasn't the main character after all.

What follows is a fairly action packed story. Along the way Matthew's friend Harris Sandler and a Senator's page Vivian travel down a 8000' mine shaft, play cat and mouse in the halls of congress, and try to unravel the story behind a mysterious gambling game that has caused the death of Matthew. All the while they are being chased by a mysterious man named Janos who will stop at nothing to silence them. I really enjoyed the story's plot twists and locations. Just when you think you understand which side everyone is one things get changed around. I also enjoyed reading about the trip down the mine shaft.

I look forward to reading more of Meltzer's books.