Oct 19, 1962
Margaret Potter has bed-hopped her way into the halls of power, and the once-shy girl from Wyoming is now installed in a highly-sensitive administrative position in the White House itself.
But in this day and age, deep in the Cold War era, and especially immediately after the Bay of Pigs incident, knowing too much can be deadly. The spy-vs-spy mentality that reigns supreme over every action on Capitol Hill has turned all venues–social, work-related, even personal–into a mental game of “who do you trust?”.
For no one is completely who they seem, and, like snakes, they seem very harmless–until you get into their strike zone. Margaret learns this through one simple act–the misplacement of a single document–and it changes her life forever.
Mr. Jacobs has written a real page-turner here. The subtleties of each character’s personalities are deftly woven together, and make for a compelling read. The author has done a good job of capturing the paranoia and the intentional naivete at the most powerful levels that was prevalent in those Cold War days.
His writing style is very sophisticated, and is a key component in how well the story plays out. Government power plays and espionage run rampant on every page, and at the end of the book is a surprise that will make the reader re-think all that has gone on before. That is what makes a book like this well worth the read.
I really liked how Margaret went from someone with only an insulated view of the world to a woman who came to see, to examine, and to understand the world around her. Having one’s life threatened several times can do that to a person.
This was a terrific read, and I highly recommend it.
