The Solomon Scandals A Washington newspaper novel by David Rothman

Crooked politicians mean tumbling buildings—in countries from Egypt to China, not just U.S.

In The Solomon Scan­dals, my Wash­ing­ton news­pa­per novel, hun­dreds of IRS and CIA bureau­crats die in the col­lapse of a rick­ety high-rise. Bribery involved? Of course.

So how much Real Life is there in this sce­nario? Just type build­ing col­lapse cor­rup­tion into Google and see such head­lines as:

Cor­rupt work cited in Egypt build­ing col­lapse — Mideast/N. Africa
Dec 29, 2007 … Shoddy mate­ri­als, ille­gal con­struc­tion and a cul­ture of cor­rup­tion were blamed Sat­ur­day for the deaths of more than three dozen people.

EasttSouth­West­North: Why Did the School Build­ing Col­lapse
Jun 2, 2008 … Many peo­ple like to demand to “kill the cor­rupt offi­cials” .…. In a brit­tle col­lapse, a build­ing can crum­ble to dust in a few seconds.

EurasiaNet Civil Soci­ety — Azer­bai­jan: Build­ing Col­lapse Exposes …
Sep 6, 2007 … debate in Azer­bai­jan about gov­ern­ment cor­rup­tion and competence.

About the photo: It is a pic­ture of the Sky­line Plaza col­lapse in North­ern Vir­ginia. I’ll not make accu­sa­tions of bribery in con­nec­tion with Sky­line. But, yes, the U.S. has had its share of corruption-related col­lapses. Mean­while keep in mind the rela­tion­ship between cor­rup­tion and build­ing col­lapses in China. Hon­est politi­cians are best for earthquake-prone areas.

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• Plot
• Overview of ‘The Solomon Scandals’