Publication Date: October 5, 2021
A political thriller about sexual misconduct in the #MeToo era, one victim’s battle to survive and overcome trauma, and the cable news machine that feeds off titillating scandal coverage and inflammatory confrontation, Final Table draws upon Dan Schorr’s firsthand experience as a New York City sex crimes prosecutor and sexual misconduct investigator to tackle the worlds of political and media dysfunction.
Former White House staffer Maggie Raster is struggling to build her own consulting firm and overcome a recent sexual assault by an ex-boss. Kyler Dawson, a broke former poker champion, desperately needs to gain entry into a controversial but potentially very lucrative international poker tournament. The host nation faces widespread condemnation for the recent murder of a prominent female US journalist, and a pending presidential executive order threatens to prohibit him and others from participating.
Maggie’s chaotic first attempt to promote her new business as a television political analyst brings her to Kyler’s attention, and convinces him that her political smarts and connections can provide the help he needs. When he approaches her for assistance, she must decide whether to agree—in return for a portion of the potential $20 million prize. To succeed, she will have to confront numerous challenges—personal and political, foreign and domestic—including mounting pressure to publicly address the misconduct of her former boss. Kyler also has his own obstacles and upsetting past to overcome, but if they each can outmaneuver their daunting challenges, he might win the tournament—and earn them both a fortune.
What do you get when you mix a high-stakes poker game, a #MeToo accusation, and a highly volatile political situation featuring the murder of an American journalist in a country under fire for human rights abuses? Author Dan Schorr would say it is a recipe for a mind-blowing thriller titled Final Table.
On the surface, it might seem that tying all of these elements together would be a stretch, but the author makes it work seamlessly. I liked the author’s approach in starting with the present and then inserting flashbacks to fill in the storyline. Throughout the story, social media plays a key role, offering a cautionary tale of how fickle public opinion can be.
The author excels with the cast of characters. Kyler Dawson, the down-on-his-luck poker player with a messy life, is the perfect tribute to be offered up for the world to criticize. All he wants is a chance to win $20 million; the politics of the tournament don’t interest him. Maggie Raster, who is trying to launch her consulting business and ends up in the media’s crosshairs, sees her dreams fall flat. A cadre of supporting characters do their part to advance the storyline to ensure a successful plot twist that I never saw coming.
Final Table incorporates today’s social justice issues by using something innocuous like a poker game and elevates it on an international scale.
Dan Schorr is a sexual misconduct investigator at his firm, Dan Schorr, LLC, and an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School, where he teaches a course on sexual misconduct and domestic violence. Previously, he served as a New York sex crimes prosecutor, the Inspector General for the City of Yonkers, and an adjunct law professor with Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. He has been a regular television legal analyst for Good Morning America, CNN, Fox News Channel, and elsewhere. Schorr holds a BA and MA from the University of Pennsylvania, and a JD from Harvard Law School. He lives in White Plains, New York, with his wife and two children. Final Table is his first novel.
