Title: And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: The Secret Life of Senator Jack
Author: Vernadine A. Merrick
Publisher: Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Agency
ISBN: 978-1631357947
Pages: 317
Genre: Fiction / Political Thriller
Reviewer: Anthony Avina
Pacific Book Review
Some of the biggest lessons in life come from the experience of making mistakes. No matter how small or how big the mistake is, that experience often informs a person of how not to behave or how to do something, and makes them a better person in the process. Only by ignoring these mistakes and the lessons they provide can a person fail in life and not realize their full potential.
Yet some mistakes are larger than others and can have unforeseen consequences. In author Vernadine A. Merrick’s And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: The Secret Life of Senator Jack, the author explores what happens when a mistake changes the lives of two brothers forever. Twin brothers Joe and Jack take very different paths in life, with Joe turning to a life on the streets while Jack focuses on his academic studies and a life of service. Torn between the divide between them and the love they seek from their father, Joe’s life takes a deep spiral and a twist in fate leaves both brothers reeling. Soon Jack is leading the life of a politician, but his family’s dark secrets gain the attention of a detective, and as Jack seeks a potential presidential run, his future rests in the hands of a man out for blood.
Haunting and well written, this book expertly crafts a narrative that feels important and compelling. The character development was top notch, giving readers multiple perspectives between the two brothers and writing with an honesty and realism that depicted both life in politics and life on the streets. The emotional bond of the brothers with their father, especially for Joe who struggles with feelings of neglect living in his brother’s shadow, was at the heart of this novel’s biggest secrets and plot twists, and the reader was immediately drawn into this world of intrigue and drama as both the family and political plot lines arose.
For readers who enjoy fictional stories that engage political thrillers and family drama narratives and themes of mystery and suspense, this is the perfect literary novel. The story is very character driven, and the author’s use of imagery and descriptive writing style paints a wonderfully dramatic and visceral narrative that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat with every turn in the book. Themes of survival, second chances, and the power secrets hold over us all mesh so well with the politics, familial storylines, and depths of power that run deep throughout this novel.
