Shall We Tell the President?

FBI agent Mark Andrews receives evidence that a group of powerful conspirators intends to assassinate the President of the United States. Most of the agents who learn of the plot are quickly killed, leaving Andrews with six days to identify the organisers, determine how the attack will be carried out and decide whom inside the government he can trust. President Florentyna Kane remains unaware that an apparently routine political dispute has placed her life in immediate danger.

The investigation moves through Washington’s political, judicial and security institutions as Andrews narrows the conspiracy without alerting its members. The novel is a fictional political thriller rather than a reconstruction of a historical presidency. It was first published in 1977 with Edward Kennedy as the imagined president and was later substantially revised so that Florentyna Kane, the central figure of The Prodigal Daughter, occupies the White House.