03152cam a2200469 i 4500 552413916 TxAuBib 20090405120000.0 090808s1996||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 95-22956 9780446519960 0446519960 TxAuBib rda Baldacci, David. Absolute Power / David Baldacci. New York : Warner Books, 1996. xxii, 678 pages ; 19 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Previously published in hardcover ed., 1996. This ed. features a new preface by the author and an exclusive original short story, No time left, by David Baldacci, c2010. Set in Washington, D.C., this thriller explores an unthinkable abuse of power and criminal conspiracy--a vicious murder involving the president, his mistress, and a coverup orchestrated by his zealously loyal chief of staff and the Secret Service. A grizzled professional cat burglar gets trapped inside the bedroom closet of one of the world's richest men, only to witness, through a one-way mirror, two Secret Service agents kill the billionaire's trampy young wife as she tries to fight off the drunken sexual advances of the nation's chief executive. Running for his life, but not before he picks up a bloodstained letter opener that puts the president at the scene of the crime, the burglar becomes the target of a clandestine manhunt orchestrated by leading members of the executive branch. Meanwhile, Jack Graham, once a public defender and now a high-powered corporate attorney, gets drawn into the case because the on-the-lam burglar just happens to be the father of his former financee, a crusading Virginia prosecutor. Embroidering the narrative through assorted plot whorls are the hero's broken romance; his conflict over selling out for financial success; the prosecutor's confused love-hate for her burglar father; the relentless investigation by a northern Virginia career cop; the dilemma of government agents trapped in a moral catch-22; the amoral ambitions of a sexy White House Chief of Staff; and the old burglar's determination to bring down the ruthless president. Meanwhile, lurking at the novel's center like a venomous spider is the sociopathic president. Goodreads 20001213. United States Secret Service Fiction. United States Secret Service. fast Evidence, Criminal United States Fiction. Murder United States Fiction. Political corruption United States Fiction. Presidents United States Fiction. Evidence, Criminal. fast Murder. fast Political corruption. fast Presidents. fast United States. fast Detective and mystery fiction. fast Fiction. fast Political fiction. fast Political fiction. fast TXGRD