Review: The K Street Affair by Mari Passananti

Title: The K Street Affair
Author: Mari Passananti
Format: Galley
Publisher: Rutland Square Press
Publish Date: January 8, 2013
Source: I received a copy from the PR; however, this did not affect my review.

Why You're Reading This Book:

• You're a fiction fan.
• You like thrillers.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "What if a massive corporation, one with political ties on both sides of the Atlantic, decided to start a war?

Hours after a crippling attack rocks Washington, D.C., Lena Mancuso, a talented young associate at one of the country’s best law firms, finds federal agents at her door, bearing unbelievable news.

Lena’s clients may have financed the murder of hundreds of civilians.

The FBI wants Lena’s insider access to spy on her firm’s high-profile roster of international clients, whose ranks include a disgraced K Street lobbyist, a flamboyant Russian oil baron and the future Saudi king - unlikely bedfellows linked by common interests in a massive multinational corporation with lofty but sinister goals: control of the world oil markets and a takeover of the United States government.

Helping the FBI means Lena will endanger herself and everyone she loves, but refusing them feels unthinkable. Armed with a mix of smarts, intuition and grit she never knew she possessed, Lena will risk everything in a race to stop a catastrophic chain of events."

My Two Cents:

"The K Street Affair" is a thriller set in Washington, D.C. and some in Moscow. While thrillers are not my usual fare, I wanted to give this one a try. I was definitely glad that I read it! This book definitely opened me up to reading more thrillers in the future. This is a great book to read during this super busy and chaotic time of year because it's one that has a lot of action that will keep you engaged throughout the entire book but it's not a book that you have to use too much brain power to enjoy.

This book starts with a literal bang as the city of Washington's Metro system was attacked. And of course, being a commuter, I read quite a bit of this book including the initial bombing while riding the Metro (yes, it was terribly creepy).

I loved the main character, Lena. She's a young lawyer who is living the dream in the city. She works long hours and doesn't particularly like her company. When she's enlisted by the FBI to essentially act as a spy within her company in order to figure out whether her firm, which is known for representing all sorts of unsavory characters throughout the world. The problem is that she isn't a really good spy. Not at all. All of the people she is supposed to be spying on very quickly see through her but she's trying to do her job. Lena is playing a game with very high stakes that even ends up getting the ball rolling on the demise of one of her loved ones.

I did notice a couple things that if you aren't a DC-er, you will probably not notice but I figure that I would mention them here (although these are negated by the fact that the author mentions two of my favorite DC Restaurants, Matchbox and Lauriol Plaza, and those most definitely exist). (A Bookish Affair's note 1/14/13: I have been told that the mistakes have been edited for the final version of the book)


I think that this book will appeal to people who don't read a lot of thrillers because of the great characters and good writing.