Statute of Limitations: A Novel - Softcover

Buckley, John Montgomery

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1476766851 ISBN 13: 9781476766850

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2013

Synopsis

Blackmailed by his drug-running former roommate, a presidential speechwriter faces a series of events--complicated by his CIA operative father and a dimwitted Senator--that threaten both his career and the administration for which he works

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

The good guy in this timely romp through behind-the-scenes Washington, D.C., is Tom O'Malley, speechwriter for the new Democratic president. Tom smoked pot at Amherst in the '70s, and now his former roommate, a bigshot drug dealer, is blackmailing him into smuggling cocaine during a presidential visit to South America. Tom represents those talented baby-boomers whose mildly disreputable pasts, sullied years ago when the nation's attitude toward drugs was comparatively lenient, can bar them from public service today. Buckley, author of Family Politics , irreverently reveals the inner workings of the White House and news media, convincingly depicting the games Washington insiders play. The plot is initially bogged down by frequent scene changes, too many undistinguishable minor characters, wordy prose and cursory references to the recently newsworthy--from spin doctors to Bryant Gumble to the Medellin cartel. But after the action picks up and the reader gets a handle on details and characters, the serpentine plot is refreshingly loophole-free and absorbing.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

Washington enjoys rumors the way pigs enjoy a good wallow so when gossip points to a White House speechwriter's drug-using past, the porkers all want to play. Poor O'Malley gives them plenty of ammunition, starting with a drunk driving arrest on Inauguration Day and ending with a caper to smuggle 20 keys of cocaine onto Air Force One. How this sincere, likable guy gets himself in and out of these scrapes is a clever way to dramatize Buckley's underlying theme: should smoking pot in the 1960s and 1970s ban mature miscreants from public service? The plot of "Cokegate" is a bit heavyhanded, but Buckley is a deft and humorous writer, skewering the press corps on both sides of the aisle and lambasting sacred cows with glee. Being a Capitol Hill regular (he is communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee), he freely seasons his tale with local color that fans of Washington novels will find juicy and recognizable. It's enough to make you think where there's smoke, there must be fire.
- Barbara Conaty, Library of Congress
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1476766851
• ISBN 13: 9781476766850
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368