The Zero Game [Mass Market Paperback]

The book starts off slowly and within the first 50 pages Meltzer sucks you in and never lets you go. Harris and Viv are running for their dear lives after Matthew dies and hARRIS discovers the game he was playing was in fact non at all.It wouldn't surprise me if this was made into a movie. This book is a perfect antidote to a weekend afternoon with nothing to do. The Zero Game is one of Meltzer's best books and even better than his last effort. (The Millionaires)

When I first started listening to this novel on unabridged audio cassette, I admit to being confused and having to rewind the first 45 minutes in order to listen to the opening sequence a second time. But after this bout of fuzzy thinking, the fast pace and non-stop excitement narrated in the intelligent and frat boy confident voice of Washington staffer Harris Sandler. moved me along at breakneck speed, unraveling a mystery as labyrinthine as the old gold mine in one of the novel's most exciting sequences. Bored to an unhealthy cynicism with the Washington CYA scene of political manuevering, Harris and his best bud Matthew have spiced up their otherwise mundane careers by doing the unethical: gambling on Congress in a little wagering fun known only by a select few as the Zero Game. Very early on in the novel, the sure thing turns bad, and Harris finds himself in an unthinkable position: on the run for his life from a maniacal assasin with a black box tool that simulates a heart attack when used on its intended victim, with 17 year old Viv Parker, a senate page from Michigan as his only ally.

As Harris and Viv weave from DC to South Dakota and back attempting to uncover the secret of the Zero Game, the reader unearths vital information about the smooth and clever Harris Sandler whose pin-striped perfection hides a disillusioned knight unhorsed by over ten years of back-stabbing DC wheeling and dealing. The innocent, idealistic and religious Viv plays the light to his shadow and together they make a wonderfully precocious and unforgettable team.

The denouement is not predictable, the science interesting, the Washington insider scenes informative and the thrills lasting until the epilogue. If listening to the audio performance, Scott Brick does a more than admirable job of depicting Harris' fallen angel personality; his Viv is brilliantly bright-eyed and wholesomely winsome.

At the end, the two protagonists part ways, but I would like to see these two reunited in the future, say 10 or 15 years down the road; perhaps difficult for the author to envision a future political climate, but fun nevertheless to imagine what could happen to these two down the road.

I recommend this book highly to all those who like a little espionage with a domestic rather than Ludlem-esque international flavor.

I really enjoyed reading this book it is a page turner and is very hard to put down. Meltzer is as good a Grisham! The gane "Zero Game" is clever and truns deadly for Matthew and Harris they have been friends since college days. Harris persuades MAtther to join the Zero Game. All is well until Matthew is killed . Harris is on the run for his life and career. This book is a must read !!!