No way to treat a first lady: a novel

Elizabeth Tyler MacMann, the First Lady of the United States, has been charged with killing her philandering husband. In the midst of a bedroom spat, she allegedly hurled a historic Paul Revere spittoon at him, with tragic results. The First Lady is on trial for assassination.

Book Magazine

The satirist whose previous targets have included political pundits ( Little Green Men ), financial self-help gurus ( God Is My Broker ) and the tobacco lobby ( Thank You for Smoking ) returns with a humorous novel starring first lady Elizabeth «Lady Beth Mac» MacMann, whose philandering, Bill Clinton like husband is found dead after a night in bed with his mistress. While the shenanigans of the president provide a great, funny back story, the main action concerns Beth, who is put on trial for «assassinating» her hubby by flinging a priceless Paul Revere spittoon at his head. Beth is a dynamo: a kind of ultra-Hillary. Buckley’s real triumph, however, is in creating Boyce «Shameless» Baylor, Beth’s $1,000-an-hour defender, a past master of «Dream Team» style dirty tricks who, it turns out, also has a past with Beth. As the story of the trial twists and turns, like Bleak House on drugs, Baylor manipulates the media, Beth and the justice system in brilliant contortion after contortion. The literary equivalent of Must-See TV, only considerably more entertaining, Buckley’s book is free-for-all satire. Author Paul Evans