The university president has breakthrough COVID, and everyone seems to see it as a chance to gain power — even if it's for a day or two. So, the interim Vice President for Student Affairs, who is also in the hospital with breakthrough COVID, and the faculty advisor for the student-run Eyewitness News decide the students should do it. Students in Control Day, or SIC Day.
Only Ryan Matthews would manage that acronym, Cinder thought sourly. And only he could manage to put her, the president of the Student Senate, in the university president's chair. She avoided the limelight. And this would shine a spotlight on her — one she didn't want. And like most of Ryan Matthews' ideas, it snowballs from there. Until somebody dies, and the police are looking at her — exactly the scrutiny she'd been avoiding.
Book 14 in the Newsroom PDX political suspense series. Foul language. Some sex. Lots of politics. Welcome to Portland.
L.J. Breedlove is a former journalist writing mysteries and thrillers about what she knows: complicated people, small towns, big cities, cops, reporters, politicians, assorted bad guys.
L.J. grew up on a cattle ranch and then went to college to be an oceanographer. She decided getting seasick was not a good trait for any oceanographer to have, and discovered journalism instead — a field that liked people who asked questions!
As a reporter and editor, she worked in Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Texas, and Washington, D. C. — places that have become the sites for her books. She got homesick for the Pacific Northwest and came home to work with college newspapers and teach journalism.
She is an over-educated, bleeding-heart liberal with a penchant for heroes such as Jack Reacher. She isn't particularly bothered by the inconsistency. Some of her thrillers have werewolves in them — that doesn’t faze her either.
You can follow her on Facebook at ljbreedlove. Best place to find her — besides a local coffee shop — is at ljbreedlove.com. You can sign up for her email newsletter there!