{"id":5515,"date":"2026-07-30T01:00:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T01:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/?p=5515"},"modified":"2026-07-30T18:19:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T18:19:38","slug":"purchasing-power-a-novel-by","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/?p=5515","title":{"rendered":"Purchasing Power"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, D.C. lawyer Dilley\u2019s first novel, Nablus Girl, was a spy thriller set in the Middle East. His sophomore effort is a dark political satire about Capitol Hill, in the tradition of Leonard Wibberley\u2019s The Mouse That Roared and Larry Beinhart\u2019s Wag the Dog. Will Bradley, having learned the ropes of influence-peddling as a congressional aide, now works for prestigious lobbying firm Schuyler Randolph, channelling political favors and money to help sleazy foreign clients enact regime change with a little (military) assistance from the U.S. government. In the aftermath of 9\/11, Will needs a new campaign to top a long-ago big success. Could aiding the tiny, semi-autonomous Georgian republic of Blaspana in achieving independence impress Will\u2019s bosses and become a major milestone in the Global War on Terror? As Will strategizes with his new clients, Natalia Gurgenadze and the cape-wearing Prince Lasha, Catherine Winningham, a rival lobbyist and lover with violent bedroom tastes, has a score to settle with Will and sets out to destroy him. Meanwhile, Will\u2019s depressed wife, Lil, is spiraling into a dangerous madness. While the bleak ending and unsympathetic characters may turn off some readers, <strong>political junkies will enjoy Dilly\u2019s sharp-edged humor that vividly captures the absurdities of life within the Beltway<\/strong><em>.\u2014Willy Williams<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, D.C. lawyer Dilley\u2019s first novel, Nablus Girl, was a spy thriller set in the Middle East. His sophomore effort is a dark political satire about Capitol Hill, in the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5514,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[90,51],"class_list":["post-5515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-political","tag-thrillers"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/formidable\/4\/PPower-400x400.png","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/formidable\/4\/PPower.png","author_info":{"display_name":"Willy Williams","author_link":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/?author=7"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}