Rosalind Wilcox is the most original protagonist this reviewer has seen in some time. Often we hear about "fresh, original voices," but Rosalind is the real deal. She is smart, strong and beautiful --- and she knows it. The refreshing thing about Rosalind is that she understands the effect she has on men and laughs at her power even as she uses it. She has fun being a woman.

SUBVERSION is by T. A. Alderson, and nowhere on the galley is there a photograph of the author. Gender is never specified on the flap copy. Rosalind is such an empowered, frankly sexual and aggressive woman that it would seem she had to have been written by a man. Yet she is a compassionate friend too, taking time out to mentor a junior colleague and meeting a friend for a breakfast when she really has no time. She keeps the date because she knows her friend needs to talk and because she promised. These qualities seem feminine and authentic, as does her ruminating over whether or not to wear pantyhose and her concern over beard burn. Certainly, only a woman would know about beard burn!

Yet T. A. Alderson is a man after all, the author of a now out-of-print collection of stories called MICHELSON IN THE DESERT. That he could write a believable woman of such substance and complexity is a mark of great insight and talent. Notable also, is the dialogue. Fast-paced and dead on, it keeps the plot moving and sheds light on characters and motive.

Like Bridget Jones, Rosalind Wilcox counts calories. She knows she's overweight, that she drinks too much and that she shouldn't smoke. Does she care? No. Rosalind knows these attributes make her no less attractive to men and, besides, she has more pressing things to worry about.

SUBVERSION is about hidden truths on many levels. Rosalind is a polished, urbane, East Coast lawyer but she hails from Zanesville, Ohio and at heart remains a small-town girl. She is carrying on a secret affair with her boss, who knows something about her past, something she thinks no one who is part of her East Coast life knows --- which is that her father disappeared years ago and is a fugitive from the FBI. Unbeknownst to Rosalind, the affair itself is not a secret at all. The other partners in the company --- a Washington, D. C. financial group for which Rosalind is the in-house counsel --- know that Rosalind and Marshall are involved and they later use it against her to dire effect. There is also a connection between her estranged father and the men for whom she works, about which Rosalind knows nothing.

But she begins to guess. And as SUBVERSION becomes more complicated it becomes great fun --- part espionage thriller, part love story, part murder mystery. Rosalind shows herself able to think on her toes. She lies brilliantly and tricks the bad guys, all the time remaining self-effacing and retaining her sense of humor. Alderson has created in Rosalind a complex woman who changes in the course of this roller coaster of a novel. Faced with the reality she has denied for so long, she must reevaluate her role in the world and what she really wants out of life. Rest assured, whatever Rosalind wants, Rosalind gets.