Finished February 4, 2022
Not all the books I finish are going to be memorable, delightful, life-changing treasures. I see that now.
I don't remember buying the Kindle version of this book, but there it was on my Kindle, and I like a good political thriller, so I read it in two sittings. After recently reading weightier material from authors including John Galsworthy, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Wilke Collins, this seemed a fun romp.
The protagonist seemed to be Jack Rudley, a journalist who, after years in the trenches, begins to work for a newsmagazine on political features. However, the main character of the book is First Lady Carolyn Lane, wife of President Warner Lane, a sympathetic character at the beginning of the story who becomes more corrupt as he moves higher up in politics.
These characters bear a remarkable similarity to the Clintons. Warner Madison Lane (Bill Clinton's middle name is Jefferson) is a charming, likable, feel-your-pain campaigner who feels trapped by his frigid wife's political ambition, and therefore chases skirts. His political enemies always wind up dead, and his controlling wife runs his campaign. Half of the story takes place in the Lanes' home city of Jefferson, MO, with similarities to Little Rock, AR (and the name Jefferson may be another nod to Bill).
First Lady Carolyn Lane is arrogant, demanding, and self-righteous ... much like Hillary in how off-putting she it. It appears that the reader is supposed to understand how circumstances in politics and marriage have made Carolyn what she is, and we are to be sympathetic. But I have a difficult time being sympathetic to such an amoral, avaricious, grasping person, no matter how much she's been hurt. And P.S., most of the pain in her life is self-inflicted. In the end, Carolyn makes a grand gesture and seems to redeem herself in a public moment of honesty/taking down her political enemy. But it smacks of justification, while we keep being reminded that she's the first woman to hold the office of VP, as though that's significant. Like Hillary, Carolyn works at a law firm before she and her husband enters politics. She uses her husband's career to advance herself and her agenda because she's such a Strong, Independent Woman (irony, anyone?). She also repeatedly cheats on her husband, uses everyone, and has a secret email account, which gets her into trouble.
I finished the book, which has some good writing, excellent pacing, and really great character development. But overall, I guess I need to stick to conservative authors for my political thrillers, because I get so annoyed at the left's worldview. At one point, Carolyn tells her faithful aide that she's going to write some legislation that will take the War on Drugs to a whole new level. Never mind that Congress writes legislation, not the First Lady. And when she has Constitutional qualms about drug-testing every man, woman and child in the country, these are quickly brushed aside.
Not to mention, I don't know why "Capital" isn't spelled "Capitol," since the pun is as obvious as a prison yard siren. A capital offense is simply a felony that's punishable by the death penalty. And yes, murder is a capital offense. But the big honking dome of the U.S. Capitol on the cover -- not to mention this is a political thriller set partly in Washington DC -- seems to cry out for the obvious pun, making its absence just puzzling. Several books have that title, so why not this one? I don't know. I just. Don't. Know.
Meh. I finished it.
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