"The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversries are insane." Mark Twain

An extremist desires to change the direction that the United States is going by wiping out the Supreme Court.

Washington is in disarray with high unemployment and budget deficits. The government wants to tax overseas accounts and this can devastate certain politicians.

Senator Josh Root is highly concerned with how he and a number of his political friends will explain the wealth they have accumulated in foreign banks through bribes and kick backs. Additionally, his health has begun to decline and someone is blackmailing him for actions he took when he was a member of an underground movement. His actions in this group were under an assumed name and, unfortunately, they resulted in the death of a security guard.

The story follows the action in Martini's "Garden of Lies." Parts of the story seem to follow closely the events of the earlier novel and it assumes that the reader has read that work prior to reading "The Rule of Nine."

In this story, the antagonist, who is putting the destructive mechanism in place, goes by the name of Thorn. At the same time, the FBI agent leading the investigation is named Thorpe. The similarity of names was confusing and I had to pause a number of times to make sure I had my characters correct.

Thorn uses a Mexican killer who is referred to as Liquida. He has a grudge against the protagonist, attorney Paul Madriani and Madriani's investigator, Herman Diggs. The hatred that Liquida feels toward Madriani and Diggs is only glossed over. For this degree of animosity, I think more detail would have helped.

The action was good but at times illogical. There is one person in the story who has a family member killed. This person runs his own investigation and makes public announcement who he feels his responsible. This character's ending is predictable, sadly, he should have known better.

Madriani is an interesting character but it does seem improbable that a New York defense attorney would feel compelled to stop his practice in order to chase terrorists. There was an appropriate level of suspense as the novel reached it's conclusion but the final pages made me feel like I was reading an episode of TVs "24." Still, this was enjoyable and I would recommend it for someone looking for a lighthearted read.