Primary Candidates

4.2/5 ( ratings)

Three politicians jockey for position the early part of 2008. Senator Robert Fox has already secured his party’s nomination, but Senators Jeannette Freddo Reynolds and Thaddeus Tasman are locked in a dogfight for theirs.

A load of highly dangerous weapons is in transit from the Arizona manufacturer to Fort Hood, Texas. A very sophisticated hijack plot interrupts their journey and the President, his Cabinet, and the U.S. military have to figure out how to get them out of the wrong hands.

Early in his first of three tours in Vietnam, Detective Hunter Morgan learned never to say the following: “Well, things can’t get any worse than this!” They can and do when a sniper starts shooting in Baltimore.

Railroad catastrophes take place on both sides of the country and terrorists strike two major American airports, driving the elections news into the background temporarily, until one of the primary candidates turns up missing . . . last seen with a Secret Service Agent.

The Vietnam Veterans of America Veteran newspaper reviewed Primary Candidates and said the following:
"Mike Sutton’s experiences in the Vietnam War are the basis for his first novel, No Survivors . Henry Small Deer was a primary character in No Survivors and returns in Primary Candidates , as an authority on armaments. All of the characters of Sutton’s second novel, High Order , also have returned. The author informs us that the novel is inspired by historical events.

As the title implies, this novel is about politicians who want to be president. Three senators are featured doing what senators do when they think they should have their party’s nomination to the nation’s highest office.

The poisonous worm in this political apple is a shipment of Stinger missiles from Arizona to Fort Hood, Texas. At this point the book becomes a hijack novel in which law enforcement agencies scramble to retrieve the missiles and kill the hijacking criminals. Something serious always goes wrong in a scenario of this sort. If it doesn’t, there is no story to hold our attention.

Detective Hunter Morgan is one of the law enforcement people who goes after the missiles. Naturally, he did three tours in Vietnam. One is never enough for a character of this sort. He’s a glutton for punishment.

Many more things go awry in this thriller: snipers in Baltimore, railroad catastrophes, terrorist strikes on major American airports. Then one of the senators “turns up missing.” That’s one of my favorite all-time clichés.

This book is a rouser, though. I highly recommend it to those who enjoy thrillers and to those who enjoyed Sutton’s previous novels.

Sutton, a witty author, also provides my favorite Jane Fonda quote out of many hundreds I’ve read in Vietnam War books. In this case the words come from a senator speaking to the President:

'Jane Fonda,” the senator says, 'has a better chance of becoming the National Commander of the Vietnam Veterans of America than the Desert Fox does winning in November.' This caught me by surprise so late in the book, and caused me to laugh aloud, something I rarely do when I read Vietnam War thrillers. Congrats to Sutton for his wit and wisdom." — David Willson