A President in Peril
Robert Goldborough
Reviewed by Barb Radmore
This third book in the Snap Milek series will be coming on in April.
This review is posted early to give you the chance to rush out and pick
up the first three in the series- Three Strikes You're Dead, Shadow of
a Bomb and A Death in Pilsen. It would be interesting to see how the
character develops in the series. It is not at all necessary to read
the rest of the series first, Goldborough does give the needed
background information on the characters, but it would be fun.
A President in Peril takes place in the last days of the on the
presidential election in 1948, Truman vs Dewey. Snap Malek is a
reporter for The Chicago Tribune. (Anyone who has followed history at
all can see where this is heading.) He is the lead man for the
pool of reporters who cover the happenings of the police department. So
maybe he should not be surprised when he becomes the recipient of
letters that claim to be from a group called The New Reich . The
authors of the letter state they are going to kill Truman when he comes
to Chicago. Not
wanting to give this hateful group the PR they crave, he
and The Trib refuse to publish the letters But it becomes more
and more difficult when, after each letter, an innocent person is
randomly killed. Will Snap be able to figure out who is behind the
threats before it is too late? With both Dewey and Truman coming to
Chicago the police have their hands full as it is and Snap's reporter
experience and instincts must go into over drive.
The fictional plot behind the story is well thought out. But it is all
the nuggets of history incorporated into the story that I found
fascinating. Anyone interested in history will enjoy this. It is often
tucked into characters' conversations, a rather trite technique but
still give wonderful historical information. It leads the reader
to delve deeper into the subjects incorporated in the book (I have to
rent Tucker The Man and His Dream again soon!) The author notes
clarifies fact vs fiction with more details.
Robert Goldborough also wrote and published seven Nero Wolfe novels
after the death of Rex Stout.