A review by attytheresa
Murder in the White House by Margaret Truman
4.0
Humph. Why have I not devoured this series before? I've owned a paperback of this one - and one or two in the series - for decades! I have a niggling feeling that I acquired them used and never read because I then heard negative reviews on them. Well, silly me for listening and not just reading and making my own judgment, as I usually do. I LOVED this and cannot wait to check out more in the series!
Ron, a young lawyer, is special counsel to President Webster, may or may not be serious about Lynne, the President's daughter, but whatever the relationship (and even Ron isn't sure), everyone considers him the son-in-law-to-be in the Webster family, and thus part of the very narrow inner circle. Also important in the cast of characters are Lan, the Secretary of State and a longtime intimate friend of the Webster family, and Gimbel, general factotum and fixer for the President, also a long time intimate of the President. Lan & Gimbel are privy to information and old secrets of the Webster family, Ron is not.
The story opens as the President and his family arrive back on Air Force One from Paris where the preliminary settlement documents for a controversial new global trade treaty were signed. All the key players meet in the Oval Room to debrief the trip and signing. And the author provides us with important clues as to the relationships and behavior of all the key characters. It is late at night and soon all go their separate ways, including Ron who heads into his office in the West Wing to read some important papers. When he finishes, locks up and heads home, he's stopped and finds himself with the President in the Lincoln Sitting Room on the 2nd floor of the White House, staring at the murdered body of the Secretary of State, who was murdered while making a phone call.
Note: these were written in 1980 - no mobile phones, no internet, no computers, but dictaphone and tapes - but they do not feel dated at all. In part because I think, of the static locale - the White House and the highest reaches of government.
Ron is by Executive Order of the President put in charge of the investigation. Truman does a superb job of tossing you an obvious murderer at the beginning, so obvious that you immediately start looking for clues as to what's really happened. It was an engaging read, with a bit of excitement just as it was a little too much interviewing suspects and reviewing timelines. And at the end, there is a twist or two that you only partially see coming, but absolutely not completely.
The series is called Capital Crimes and I do not believe the same characters appear in each one. I also note that another author has taken over the series and continued it after Margaret Truman's death. And yes, Margaret Truman is President Truman's daughter. She knows of what she writes.
Ron, a young lawyer, is special counsel to President Webster, may or may not be serious about Lynne, the President's daughter, but whatever the relationship (and even Ron isn't sure), everyone considers him the son-in-law-to-be in the Webster family, and thus part of the very narrow inner circle. Also important in the cast of characters are Lan, the Secretary of State and a longtime intimate friend of the Webster family, and Gimbel, general factotum and fixer for the President, also a long time intimate of the President. Lan & Gimbel are privy to information and old secrets of the Webster family, Ron is not.
The story opens as the President and his family arrive back on Air Force One from Paris where the preliminary settlement documents for a controversial new global trade treaty were signed. All the key players meet in the Oval Room to debrief the trip and signing. And the author provides us with important clues as to the relationships and behavior of all the key characters. It is late at night and soon all go their separate ways, including Ron who heads into his office in the West Wing to read some important papers. When he finishes, locks up and heads home, he's stopped and finds himself with the President in the Lincoln Sitting Room on the 2nd floor of the White House, staring at the murdered body of the Secretary of State, who was murdered while making a phone call.
Note: these were written in 1980 - no mobile phones, no internet, no computers, but dictaphone and tapes - but they do not feel dated at all. In part because I think, of the static locale - the White House and the highest reaches of government.
Ron is by Executive Order of the President put in charge of the investigation. Truman does a superb job of tossing you an obvious murderer at the beginning, so obvious that you immediately start looking for clues as to what's really happened. It was an engaging read, with a bit of excitement just as it was a little too much interviewing suspects and reviewing timelines. And at the end, there is a twist or two that you only partially see coming, but absolutely not completely.
The series is called Capital Crimes and I do not believe the same characters appear in each one. I also note that another author has taken over the series and continued it after Margaret Truman's death. And yes, Margaret Truman is President Truman's daughter. She knows of what she writes.