An entertaining murder romp from inside the Beltway.

I hadn't planned on reading this book. I occasionally succumb to the 'gee, this looks interesting' impulse, drawn to a book because of its cover or the particular mood I'm in. In this case, I was looking for a copy of Christopher Buckley's 1994 novel Thank You For Smoking, partly because I'd heard good things about it, but mostly because I'm too cheap to go see the movie. Alas, another cheapsake had the same idea and had absconded with Memorial's only available copy. So, I instead grabbed the next book on the shelf: No Way to Treat a First Lady, Buckley's satire on Washington life and its legal tangles.

Part murder mystery, part courtroom drama, Buckley's quickly paced plot centers on the mysterious death of a first term, war-hero president following a late-night 'consultation' with a well-known Hollywood actress and party donor in the Lincoln Bedroom. When the president is found dead in his wife's bed the next morning with a sizeable imprint from a Paul Revere silver spittoon on his forehead, suspicion naturally falls on his publicly despised and headstrong first lady, Beth MacMann. Lady Bethmac (as she is fondly referred to in the press) turns to the only lawyer who will be willing to go to the lowest depths to keep her from a lethal injection: Boyce "Shameless" Baylor. That Baylor also happens to be the man Lady Beth dumped to marry War God is only the first of many twists.

As a former speechwriter for Bush 41 and possessor of a tony conservative pedigree, Buckley brings insider savvyness and a never-ending dose of cynicism to the inner malfunctionings of Washington. A few well-known media personalities pop up, and it's likely that some of the fictional characters will bring to mind flesh-and-blood equivalents. Much like Carl Hiassen's novels, Buckely's line between fiction and reality is blurred enough to make No Way to Treat a First Lady both outlandishly funny and wryly believable.