E PLURIBUS BANG!

by David Lippincott ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1970

George Ramsey Kirk, 39th President of the United States (by default), excuses himself from a state dinner to get some Tums and stumbles instead onto the First Lady and her secret service guard engaged in close mutual surveillance. Violation of home and presidential prerogative--too much! And thus a President commits the first crime passionel in the known history of the White House, drapes the corpse in Tricia Nixon's embroidered bedspread (the official seal), and goes back downstairs to finish with the British. From there it's a black comedy of contingencies as secret agencies and very secret sub-agencies scramble after the spreading effects. The body is no problem--it's buried in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier; and when the bomb meant for one of its CIA undertakers blows up a Greek dam and drowns 800 peasants, that can be pinned on the Chinese with only slightly greater effort. But things get serious when the CIA chief who masterminded the aforementioned disposals begins some undercover finagling of his own. All the ludicrous possibilities of intramural (and other) espionage are followed through to a hairpin peripety that makes the deliberate uses of nonsense (Who'd ever believe that?) uncomfortably clear. This is not quite the laff-riot its premises suggest, but its irreverence is ingenious and sustained.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1970

Categories: FICTION