Big If

Every day, the Secret Service agents assigned to the vice president face a long list of threats. Once he campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination, the agents' private lives may prove the greatest risk to his safety.

Vi Asplund is a sharp-tongued, physically capable agent. Her father, an atheist insurance adjuster, often brought Vi and her brother Jens along to the gruesome crash sites he investigated. Vi grew up comfortable with the grim and the macabre, a comfort that stays with her in her work. Jens became a software designer who builds violent video games. Chief of detail Gretchen Williams works to keep her team functioning, and Agent Tashmo, a seasoned presidential guard, looks back fondly on the Reagan years.

As the primaries draw near, these tense, driven men and women try to hold together their own lives while protecting the vice president. The novel is a story of survival and absurdity that takes a pointed look at America today.