First Daughter, by Eric van Lustbader

This is a thriller featuring a newly elected – but still not inaugurated – president in some future point in time, in an America where the religious right seems to be much stronger than now. Alli Carson, the 19-year-old daughter of the U.S. president-elect, moderate Republican Edward Carson, is abducted a month before her father’s inauguration to be programmed to do something truly terrible at the inauguration ceremony.

ATF agent Jack McClure, who has previously come to the attention of Edward Carson, is chosen to play a prominent role in the search for Alli, primarily because she was the boarding-school roommate of his now-deceased daughter, Emma. Jack faces many difficulties, chief among them his own severe dyslexia. As we learn more about him, it becomes evident that he is a mess. He struggles with the demons of his youth, and has severe guilt over the death of his daughter and a very problematic and unresolved relationship to his ex-wife.

The unnamed current president, who makes religion the basis for all his decisions, wants to use the search as an excuse for all-out war on his enemies, the First American Secular Revivalists and their secret partners, the E-Two terrorist group.

Lustbader does a fine job of depicting the search for Alli, but I found the story and plot clear enough and good, but at the same time Lustbader mixes into the brew this time some confusing political message will leave many readers wondering what the book was really about. Also, the side stories and background provided in flashbacks was not all that interesting and oftentimes not all that relevant either. I think of this book primarily as a book for Lustbader fans.

Links to Eric van Lustbaders books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

Tagged as: Book review, Eric van Lustbader, First Daughter, Thriller