The President's Assassin

From Publishers Weekly
Plenty of believable action plus heavy doses of insider atmosphere add zest to Haig's fifth suspense thriller to feature army lawyer Sean Drummond (after 2003's Private Sector). It might be nothing like the real White House or even TV's The West Wing, but the center of American power as envisioned by Haig is a potent myth, a modern-day Arthurian Round Table serving as a source of lessons and high drama. Now part of the CIA's Office of Special Projects, Drummond is assigned to protect the president against the enemies who threaten his life. The novel opens on a powerful note with the discovery in a posh suburban Virginia house of six bullet-ridden bodies, including that of the White House chief of staff. Could there be a connection between this massacre and the $100 million bounty someone has put on the head of the U.S. president? Helped by attractive, no-nonsense FBI agent Jennifer Margold, the wise-cracking Drummond first goes after a rogue member of the White House security detail, but things are not what they seem. After some serious shooting and explosions, Drummond and Margold are still only a day away from the likely murder of the president. Haig makes us care what happens by avoiding genre clichés whenever possible and by creating much sympathy for the relatives left behind in the carnage. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
Sean Drummond, the JAG attorney whose crime-solving skills are almost matched by his ability to tick people off, has a new assignment: working for the Office of Special Projects, a CIA offshoot. Not long after his reassignment, Drummond is called to a murder scene where one of the six victims is the White House Chief of Staff and where a note was found in which the assassin threatens the life of the president. In this kind of thriller, the outcome isn't much of a mystery; it's how we get to the outcome that counts, and Haig leads us there through a series of plot twists, shortcuts, and dead ends that never fail to keep us on our toes. Haig is still developing as a novelist, and readers familiar with his previous books will note that Haig's appeal is no longer purely plot driven. Action is still his calling card, but his supporting characters are becoming more fleshed out, his dialogue smoother. The best Sean Drummond thriller has yet to be written, but this one is very good indeed. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
With just three days to prevent the assassination of the President, Army lawyer Sean Drummond races the clock in the high-stakes countdown of his career. Army lawyer Sean Drummond*s new posting is to the Office of Special Projects, a CIA cell that handles the most dangerous threats. When the White House Chief of Staff is found brutally murdered, there*s a note beside him promising more victims--including the President. Sean leaps into action, teaming up with a beautiful colleague to try to stop the assassin. As the killer stalks the campaign trail, apparently driven by a $500 million bounty on the President*s head, all arrows point to a member of the White House security detail who*s gone missing. Only after a dramatic hostage rescue that culminates in an intense shootout does Sean realize law enforcement*s horrible miscalculation--and what must be done to set things right.


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In a sizzling thriller, JAG lawyer Sean Drummond (Private Sector, 2003, etc.) has two days to save POTUS from a mad, bad killer even smarter than Sean is. Not easy, as followers of this series well know, since Major Drummond's foxiness is world-class. But from the beginning of a skein of horrific murders, the mad, bad guy seems always to be a giant step ahead of the good guys, Sean included. First, White House of Chief of Staff Terry Belknap and his wife are annihilated in their own home, along with the four magnificently trained secret-service agents assigned to protect them. Next, the White House receives a chest-thumping message promising that the president himself is history and no force on earth can save him. Remorselessly followed by the murders of a Supreme Court justice and the chairman of the Republican National Committee, the mad, bad boast begins to take on the aspect of revealed truth. Outmaneuvered at every turn, Sean, on temporary duty with the CIA's Office of Special Projects, decides there must be a mole in the woodwork. Only that could explain the sophisticated security systems confidently breached, the ready and diabolical exploitation of habits, behavior patterns, and peccadilloes once considered intensely private. FBI Special Agent in Charge Jenny Mangold agrees with Sean, and together they root around in personnel files, on high alert for suspicious smells. They find one, or at least they think they do: a man so blinded with hate that indiscriminate slaughter appears to him nothing other than a measured response to an unhappy childhood. The good guys mount their chase. And while they do, brash, tough, iconoclastic Sean and his brainy, leggy partner try hard not to getdistracted by each other. When on his game, as he is here, the mouthy lawyer with the susceptible heart is as good as the genre offers.


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