Behind the Bull Moose Series: Why I Write Political Thrillers About Reform

People assume a writer with twenty years inside politics would write thrillers about corruption. I write political thrillers about reform instead, because the harder, more honest cliffhanger isn’t how power gets abused — it’s whether anyone can fix the machine while it’s still running. Reform is slow, unglamorous, and constantly one vote from collapse. That, to me, is the real suspense.

Why write political thrillers about reform instead of corruption?

Corruption is easy to dramatize and easy to forget. A villain schemes, gets caught or doesn’t, and the reader closes the book feeling cynical. Reform is harder to write and harder to dismiss, because it asks a more uncomfortable question: when the rules are bending, who actually does the patient, thankless work of holding the structure together? In the Bull Moose world, the people trying to repair the republic are not saints. They are tired, compromised, and outnumbered — which is exactly why their small wins land like thrillers should.

What happens behind the scenes when I build a plot?

Most chapters start with a procedural question I genuinely don’t know the answer to: what really happens if a succession fails, if an institution stalls, if a single official refuses to follow the script? I chase the real mechanism first — the statute, the precedent, the room where it would actually be decided — and only then invent the characters who have to live inside it. The drama comes from the constraints being true. Readers who work in government tell me the procedural bones are what keep them turning pages, because they recognize the machinery even when they wish they didn’t.

Where should a new reader start?

If this is the kind of story you want — institutional stakes with a thriller engine underneath — the easiest on-ramp is the free prequel, The Senate Deception. From there, the Bull Moose reading order lays out where each book fits, beginning with What It Takes to Kill a Bull Moose. None of them flatter the reader. They assume you can hold two ideas at once: that the system is fragile, and that fragile things are still worth defending.

Frequently asked questions

What are political thrillers about reform? They are thrillers where the central tension is repairing or defending an institution — succession rules, elections, the courts — rather than simply exposing a villain. The Bull Moose series builds its suspense on whether the republic’s machinery can be fixed in time.

Do I need a political background to enjoy the Bull Moose series? No. The books explain the real mechanisms in plain English as the plot moves, so readers who work in government and readers brand-new to it both find a way in.

What is the best place to start the series? Start with the free prequel, The Senate Deception, then move to book one, What It Takes to Kill a Bull Moose, using the reading-order page as your guide.

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About the author: Michael Fedor is the award-winning author of the Bull Moose political thriller series. Drawing on 20 years inside politics and campaigns, he writes pulse-pounding fiction about power, democracy, and the fragile machinery of the republic.