The President's Man — Nicholas Guild

It was a great team from the start. Simon Faircliff: candidate for the U.S. Senate, the liberal's darling, with the charisma of a great leader. And Frank Austen: young, sharp, ruthless; in search of a job-and a cause. It took them eight years to get Faircliff the White House, and Austen the directorship of the C.I.A. and Faircliff's only daughter for his wife. For Austen it was eight years orchestrating campaigns and clearing the way for the man he had come to love and deeply respect.Only then, when he thought they had captured the world, did Austen have the time to sit back and listen to the nagging inner voice telling him that something, somewhere, was profoundly wrong. A chance encounter with an old man, imprisoned so long he had come to be known as the Political Prisoner Emeritus, sets Austen off to piece together a puzzle so sinister, so terrifying in its implications, that its only resolution is treason.An espionage novel of the highest caliber, The President's Man is also a brilliantly crafted psychological novel, reminiscent of All the King's Men and Advise and Consent in its portrait of political life.What others have said of The President's Man:Kansas City Star'President's Man' is a powerful political thriller.This is Nicholas Guild's fifth novel. His previous books have gained wide critical acclaim for realism, intelligent plotting, sustained action and suspense. The President's Man should prove to be his best effort to date.Mr. Guild is a marvelously facile writer, and The President's Man, because of its power and believability, is easily one of the best political action novels to come along since Advise and Consent.LA Herald ExaminerFor fast moving, hard to put down, political intrigue, Nicholas Guilds latest novel fits all the requirements. Once again, he had spun a narrative with consummate skill and introduced complex characters as real and your best, or worst, friend.Library JournalThis is a well-written, clever story of political intrigue and spies.Asbury Park PressWARNING! Do not begin this book unless you have time on your hands.Don't make the mistake I did-and begin the book about midnight when you must be up early for work the next day. You'll get very little sleep.Only rarely does a novel come along that really merits the hackneyed phrase You can't put it down. This does.The Clarion-Ledger - Jackson Daily NewsNicholas Guild. . . has written a book about moles called The President's Man, and it is a pleasure to read it.Guild takes his theme to the ultimate step-the president is an agent for the Soviet Union. As unlikely a plot as it would first seem, by the time Guild gets finished with The President's Man the case against the president not only seems likely but inevitable.Such is Guild's story-telling ability. He takes the reader step by step into the finely drawn characterizations of his actors. Simon Faircliff, the senator from California and then president; Frank Austen, the desperate young lawyer who puts his last nickel on Faircliff's first successful campaing; and Faircliff's daughter, Dorothy, who always held her mother's death against her father and then, to her horror, learns that what she had thought was some psychological reaction to her mother's death is literally true.The writing in this book is excellent. In a genre that usually depends on tricks of espionage to rescue the good guys from the bad, adequate writing can often pass for good. Guild, though, is genuine. His prose is clear and his dialogue is easy and believable.It is indeed a pleasure to read a political thriller to which the writer brings such good craftsmanship.Book-of-the-Month Club NewsFeatured SelectionThe President's Man is a perfect example of what an espionage novel should be.