Political thrillers often focus on the people fighting for office. David Swanson's The Vote: A Story of Political Peril looks beyond the campaign trail to something more consequential: the machinery that determines how American government can be changed. At the center of the novel is a coordinated effort involving wealthy conspirators, political operatives, candidates, state legislatures, and Congress, with the Article V constitutional amendment process providing the framework for an attempt to permanently reshape the country's political system. 

That focus gives the novel a particularly unsettling premise. The threat does not depend upon abandoning the political system but upon understanding it well enough to manipulate it. Released today by Mission Point Press, The Vote places money, political influence, and constitutional procedure inside the same conspiracy—and asks what might happen when the people pursuing power are thinking far beyond the next election. 

A Story of Political Peril

Fiction

Date Published: 09-10-2026

Publisher: Mission Point Press

The Vote is a political thriller built around a conspiracy among powerful political actors, billionaires, and party operatives who seek to manipulate the constitutional amendment process in order to permanently reshape the structure of American government. The mechanics of American politics, particularly the Article V constitutional amendment process, is the framework that informs the central premise of the novel. The current political landscape of the country lends credibility to the story and gives the narrative an interesting and timely foundation. 

The manuscript opens with a series of interconnected storylines involving political figures, wealthy conspirators, and emerging state-level candidates. These threads gradually reveal a coordinated effort to gain control of state legislatures and Congress as part of a broader plan to fundamentally alter the country’s political system. The concept itself is ambitious and grounded in recognizable political realities.

The constitutional amendment process gives The Vote a distinctive foundation for its conspiracy. Article V is not simply political background; it is the mechanism that makes control of state legislatures and Congress essential to the conspirators' larger objective. The stakes therefore extend beyond a single candidate, party, or election cycle. Swanson's premise is concerned with who controls the rules themselves—and what can happen when enormous private wealth is paired with a sophisticated understanding of how those rules can be changed. 

The novel's interconnected storylines add another dimension by following political figures, wealthy conspirators, and emerging state-level candidates as the larger plan begins to emerge. Readers interested in how money, institutional power, and political strategy intersect will find the mechanics of the conspiracy as important as the people carrying it out.

The Vote is suited to political-thriller readers who are as interested in the machinery of government as they are in the people trying to control it. Its use of Article V, state legislatures, congressional power, and coordinated political strategy gives the conspiracy an institutional focus rather than relying on a threat operating entirely outside the political system. 

It should also speak to readers drawn to fiction about the influence of extreme wealth on public institutions. Billionaires and party operatives occupy the same political landscape as candidates and legislators here, making the relationship between money and formal authority part of the central tension. Those who enjoy following multiple storylines as separate pieces gradually reveal a larger plan will find that structure at the heart of Swanson's novel.

In 1981, he founded Daavlin, a medical technology company that eventually grew into a prominent player in the field of dermatology. As part of his career, he stepped foot on every continent and dipped his toes in every ocean on earth. Reading, writing, traveling, acting, and directing live theater are his favored pastimes. 

He’s also a lifetime political junkie. As this book goes to press, Swanson is a candidate for the Ohio House of Representatives.

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The most provocative element of The Vote is the way its conspiracy turns constitutional procedure into the source of danger. The people seeking control are not portrayed as outsiders trying to demolish the political system from a distance; their strategy depends upon elections, legislatures, Congress, money, and the amendment process already built into American government. That distinction makes the novel's central question larger than who holds office at a particular moment. 

Swanson's combination of concentrated wealth and institutional power gives today's release a sharp point of tension: political rules offer stability only as long as the people using them respect what those rules are meant to protect. For readers interested in a thriller that puts constitutional mechanics directly inside its conspiracy, The Vote approaches political peril from an unusually specific angle.

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Kandi Cain has enough trouble locating missing animals without adding ghosts, homicide detectives, international warlords, and covert operations to her workload. Gail Koger's Shenanigans series gives its psychic pet detective an increasingly improbable collection of problems, beginning with a rescued Yorkie, an undercover operation gone spectacularly wrong, and the discovery that her irritating new neighbor happens to be the homicide cop hunting the mysterious "Ninja Nun." 

By the second book, talking to animals and occasionally to the dead is almost the ordinary part of Kandi's life. The Trouble With Tigers expands her peculiar caseload to lions, endangered white tigers, a CIA black ops agent, and a mission connected to preventing a terrorist attack. The combination of paranormal abilities, animal-centered mysteries, escalating chaos, and the combative attraction between Kandi and Detective Dutch Callaghan gives this two-book spotlight a personality all its own.

One psychic pet detective.

One grumpy homicide cop.

A million ways to cause total chaos.

Shenanigans

Shenanigans Book 1

by Gail Koger

Genre: Paranormal Romantic Comedy, Supernatural Sleuth

Kandi Cain inherited her Dr. Doolittle abilities from her grandmother and became a psychic pet detective. To her dismay, she just acquired the power to communicate with the spirit world, but dead people give her the willies. 

Just when Kandi thought her life couldn’t get more complicated, the neighbor from hell moved in next door. The nasty guy’s name is Dutch Callaghan. How can someone so gorgeous be such a dick? Kandi could chalk some of it up to his job. Dutch is a Phoenix PD homicide cop.

Kandi’s current case is rescuing a Yorkie from a brutal dog fighting ring. Little does she know her dog napping suspect is involved in a series of brutal murders. Disguised as an elderly nun, Kandi rescues the Yorkie and, in the process, blows the hell out of Dutch’s undercover operation.

Kandi now finds herself a person of interest in her client’s murder and her sexy-as-hell, pain-in-the-butt neighbor is in hot pursuit of the Ninja Nun. Is Dutch about to slap the cuffs on? Only time will tell.

Kandi's psychic talent immediately separates Shenanigans from a conventional amateur-sleuth story because her clients can be the animals themselves. The ability comes with an inconvenient expansion, too: she can now communicate with spirits, even though dead people thoroughly unsettle her. Koger uses those abilities as part of Kandi's work rather than making them her only source of trouble. 

The first case demonstrates just how quickly those troubles can collide. A Yorkie rescue connects Kandi to a murder investigation, while her elderly-nun disguise turns her into the Ninja Nun being pursued by Dutch—the homicide detective who also happens to be her aggravatingly attractive neighbor. That collision of pet detective work, supernatural complications, police investigation, disguise, and antagonistic chemistry establishes a comic mystery in which Kandi's solutions have a habit of creating entirely new problems.

Shenanigans is particularly suited to readers who like their paranormal mysteries irreverent and their protagonists capable of turning a rescue mission into a much larger disaster. Kandi's ability to communicate with animals gives pet-centered cases a supernatural twist, while her new connection to the spirit world opens another source of information she would rather avoid. 

The dynamic with Dutch adds the romantic-comedy friction. He is simultaneously Kandi's neighbor, a homicide detective, and the cop pursuing her disguised alter ego, putting attraction and investigation on a collision course from the beginning. Readers who enjoy animal antics, psychic sleuths, chaotic disguises, murder investigations, and romantic sparring all occupy the sweet spot for this series.

The Trouble With Tigers

Shenanigans Book 2

Lions and tigers and skunks, oh my! Kandi Cain’s a psychic pet detective. Her cases range from wrangling baby goats, to finding lost critters. Her current case is rescuing a lion from a Nigerian warlord. Kandi knew dressing up as a demonic clown and walking a lion down a city street would freak people out. But, wow! She didn’t expect Armageddon. 

The hot as hell Detective Dutch Callaghan’s on her trail again and showing more than a professional interest. Kandi’s talents have attracted the attention of a CIA black ops agent who wants her to steal twelve endangered white tigers from a Pakistani warlord. The mission’s crucial to prevent a terrorist attack. 

Wait! What? Terrorists? What had she gotten herself into? Kandi wasn’t a superhero. She couldn’t bend steel with her bare hands, and she wasn’t faster than a speeding bullet. She’s Doctor Doolittle. She talks to the animals and occasionally the dead.

The Trouble With Tigers takes the eccentric ingredients established in the first book and dramatically enlarges Kandi's playing field. A woman whose profession normally involves missing pets and unruly animals is suddenly dealing with a Nigerian warlord, a CIA black ops agent, twelve endangered white tigers, and a mission tied to preventing a terrorist attack. The absurd scale of that escalation is part of the joke: Kandi knows perfectly well that talking to animals does not make her a superhero. 

Dutch's role is changing at the same time. The homicide detective who was previously chasing Kandi is now showing more than professional interest, allowing their combative relationship to develop while her assignments become increasingly dangerous. The result keeps the series' animal communication and comedy intact even as Kandi finds herself pushed far beyond the boundaries of ordinary pet detective work.

Readers who enjoyed Kandi's talent for turning unusual animal rescues into full-scale chaos in the first book will find the second installment deliberately raises the stakes. Lions, tigers, warlords, covert operations, and a demonic-clown disguise make this a strong match for anyone who prefers paranormal romantic comedy that embraces absurd situations rather than playing its supernatural premise straight. 

The developing interest between Kandi and Dutch also gives series readers another reason to continue. Their relationship now has to compete with a heroine whose particular abilities have attracted the attention of people operating far beyond local police work. Anyone who likes a romance developing in the middle of increasingly outrageous supernatural investigations should feel comfortably at home with Kandi's version of detective work.

Howdy. My name is Gail Koger and once upon a time I was a 9-1-1 dispatcher. Too many years of wild requests, screwy questions, bizarre behavior and outrageous demands have left me with a permanent twitch and an uncontrollable craving for chocolate. I took up writing science fiction romance to keep from killing people. So far, it has worked.

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Shenanigans

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The Trouble With Tigers

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Kandi Cain may be able to communicate with animals, but that hardly makes her life easier. Across Shenanigans and The Trouble With Tigers, every useful ability seems to arrive with an equally troublesome consequence: talking to animals leads her into dangerous rescues, communicating with spirits introduces dead people she would prefer not to encounter, and solving cases repeatedly puts her in Dutch Callaghan's path. 

The series' most distinctive trick is the scale of its escalation. A missing or endangered animal can become the doorway to murder, undercover police work, international intrigue, or a CIA assignment, yet Kandi remains the woman in the middle reminding everyone that she is Doctor Doolittle, not a superhero. Add Dutch's changing interest in his chaotic neighbor, and Gail Koger has built a supernatural sleuth series where romance and danger have to compete with whatever Kandi—and the animals—manage to unleash next.

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