The President's House Margaret Truman

"Fight House looks juicy as all hell" - National Review

Every American president, when faced with a crisis, longs to take bold and decisive action. When American lives or vital interests are at stake, the public—and especially the news media and political opponents—expect aggressive leadership. But, contrary to the dramatizations of Hollywood, rarely does a president have that option.

As Margaret Truman knows from firsthand experience, living in the White House can be exhilarating and maddening, alarming and exhausting, but it is certainly never dull. Part private residence, part goldfish bowl, and part national shrine, the White House is both the most important address in America and the most intensely scrutinized. In The President's House, Margaret Truman takes us behind the scenes as she reveals what it feels like to live in the White House. Here are hilarious stories of Teddy Roosevelt's rambunctious children tossing spitballs at presidential portraits and a heartbreaking account of the tragedy that befell President Coolidge's young son John…

Bestselling novelist and first daughter Truman brings readers inside the White House, taking them on a notably reverential tour of its storied history, its well-known architecture and its intricate behind-the-scenes workings. There's a lighthearted jaunt through the White House kitchen, where one strong-willed housemaid kept serving President Truman brussels sprouts, though he hated them. The tour then goes to the White House garden, where Lincoln's gardener offered the first lady tips on hiding her excessive shopping expenses. Much of Truman's narrative is history lite aimed at the Martha Stewart set. Yet it contains just enough interesting anecdotes and stirring pageantry to be of interest to the general reader who's curious about how the White House functions.

Mining crimes of the past and politics, Truman ( Murder at the Pentagon ) scants the basic plotting requirements of her 11th Capital Crimes case, which is marred by superfluous unsolved murders and an unconvincing conclusion. When the body of Pauline Juris, personal secretary of wealthy developer Wendell Tierney, is found in the Potomac River, Tierney calls former attorney, now law professor, Mackenzie Smith for advice. Mac, whose beloved wife Annabel wants him to stop dabbling in detection, agrees to see Wendell, but he refuses to ferret out the police line on the case, even though a former student of his heads the investigation team. Tierney, becoming chief suspect when love letters, purportedly from him, are found in the dead woman's apartment, again begs for Mac's help…