The Slate

By: Matthew FitzSimmons

Narrated by: Mia Barron

An exiled political operative in search of redemption is drawn back into her past in a piercing thriller about secrets, scandals, and capital chaos by a Wall Street Journal bestselling author.

In another life, Agatha Cardiff was Congressman Paul Paxton’s chief of staff, a coolheaded fixer who made all his problems disappear. At Paxton’s behest, she covered up a shocking scandal that would have ruined a powerful senator’s career. It was one moral compromise too far and Agatha vowed, Never again.

After twenty years in exile, Agatha’s life in the margins of Washington, DC, is about to become much more difficult. The rules have changed in her absence—that senator is now president, and Paxton, number three in the House, expects a nomination to the Supreme Court. After all, he knows where the president’s skeletons are buried.

At the same time, Agatha’s quiet life on Capitol Hill shatters when her tenant—a woman with complex connections to DC—vanishes. Suddenly, Agatha is drawn back into a mire of corruption, blackmail, and deception precisely when she can least afford it. Any hope of redemption won’t come easy, because the true cost of Agatha’s sins is finally coming to light, and it is far from certain who will pay.

©2024 by Planetarium Station, Inc. (P)2024 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Proof that the fiction of hard-knuckle political intrigue can still be stranger than the truth, at least this week.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Matthew FitzSimmons breaks out of the pack of DC novels of politics and crime with The Slate, a sobering ticking-clock(s) screen of Washington power beyond mere election fraud—and he does so with strong twenty-first-century kick-ass women. While FitzSimmons spotlights evils like political corruption, human trafficking, and murder, what makes The Slate stand out is its climax core: redemption.” —James Grady, creator of Condor and author of The Smoke in Our Eyes

“Matthew Fitzsimmons has skillfully woven together the stories of Agatha, Shelby, and Felix into a compelling and taut mystery…The Slate is a masterful novel.” —Marilyn’s Mystery Reads

Disappointing

I had higher hopes for the author of the Gibson Vaughn series. The new heroine is clever, but that's pretty much the beginning and end of her skill set.

Most of the novel is her arguing with people interwoven with long-winded character exposition and scene setting. He sets up a lot of storylines and introduces genuinely interesting characters, only to have it all fizzle at the end.

There's a lot of Beltway inside baseball, which seems quaint against today's politics.

It's worth listening to, but it's a step down from his previous work.

Good Political Thriller

I mean this as a compliment, this reads like a really good episode of Scandal.
Political intrigue at its best. All the characters get called to account at some point, so even the “good” guys have flaws. Not so much back story on the “bad” guys but even they have their motives.
Narration was excellent. Hard to stop listening.
Love all this authors books!

Loved this book!

Great story with the perfect narrator! I looked at reviews after I started listening because I thought the ratings should have been better. The one star for narrator shocked me. It has always baffled me how differently we all review the books and narrators. I would hate for anyone to skip over this book because of that one review. A reader expressing more emotion would not have fit in this story. Listen to the preview before you buy. This author is fantastic, this book is fantastic and the reader is fantastic. Enjoy!

Superb

A really good read, kept me me sucked in to the end. I hope Agatha is back for a new installment.

Great political thriller w a sense of humor

It had terrific characters, plot lines and dialogue. Highly recommend. Didn’t get bogged down. Good narrator also

The ONE TIME I don’t preview a narrator…

Matthew Fitzsimmons titles always jump to the top of my reading list. This is another attention-keeping story well told.

That said, I really wish they’d chosen a different narrator. This woman delivered almost every sentence in this book like she was reading a grocery list or a recipe. Her delivery is so robotic that after the first five minutes I went back to Audible to make sure I hadn’t accidentally picked up a book read by A.I. Her manner of speaking and the way her voice sounded oddly low and growly even when it was a woman character’s words threw me out of the story time and again. A person’s inflection - or lack thereof - can absolutely change the meaning of words or the tone of a situation and I had to back up and re-listen to sections many times.

I highly recommend this book, but not in audio form. I listen to audiobooks because I rarely have time to sit and read text anymore, but I’m going to find time to go back and read ‘The Slate’ so I get the full, uninterrupted experience of the story.