This intricate fastpaced story whose many scenes and details fit togetherlike so many pieces of a jigsaw puzzle is Didions incisive and chilling lookat a modern... » 

This intricate fastpaced story whose many scenes and details fit togetherlike so many pieces of a jigsaw puzzle is Didions incisive and chilling lookat a modern world where things are not working as they should and where theoblique and official language is as sinister as the events it is covering up.The narrator introduces Elena McMahon estranged from a life of celebrityfundraisers and from her powerful West Coast husband Wynn Janklow whom shehas left taking Catherine her daughter to become a reporter for TheWashington Post. Suddenly walking off the 1984 campaign she finds herselfboarding a plane for Florida to see her father Dick McMahon. She becomesembroiled in her Dicks business though she had trained herself sincechildhood not to have any interest in what he was doing. It is from thismoment that she is caught up in something much larger than she could haveimagined something that includes AmbassadoratLarge Treat Austin Morrison andAlexander Brokaw the ambassador to an unnamed Caribbean island.Into this startling vision of conspiracies arms dealing and assassinationsDidion makes connections among Dallas IranContra and Castro and points uphow spectral companies with highconcept names tended to interlock. As thisbook builds to its terrifying finish we see the underpinnings of a darkhistorical underbelly. This is our system the one trying to create a contextfor democracy and getting its hands a little dirty in the process.From the Hardcover edition. «