by Robert Harris
(2007)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Britain’s former prime minister is holed up in a remote, ocean-front house in America, struggling to finish his memoirs, when his long-term assistant drowns. A professional ghostwriter is sent out to rescue the project – a man more used to working with fading rock stars and minor celebrities than ex-world leaders. The ghost soon discovers that his distinguished new client has secrets in his past that are returning to haunt him – secrets with the power to kill.
Dashing, captivating Adam Lang was Britain’s longest serving — and most controversial — prime minister of the last half century, whose career ended in tatters after he sided with America in an unpopular war on terror. Now, after stepping down in disgrace, Lang is hiding out in wintry Martha’s Vineyard to finish his much sought-after, potentially explosive memoir, for which he accepted one of history’s largest cash advances. But the project runs aground when his ghostwriter suddenly and mysteriously disappears and later washes up, dead, on the island’s deserted shore.
Enter our hero — Lang’s new ghostwriter — cynical, mercenary, and quick with a line of deadpan humor. Accustomed to working with fading rock stars and minor celebrities, he jumps at the chance to be the new ghost of Adam Lang’s memoirs, especially as it means a big payday. At once he flies to Lang’s remote location in America to finish the book in the seclusion of a luxurious estate, but it doesn’t take him long to realize he has made a fatal error in judgment.
The state of affairs is grim enough when the ghost begins to unearth the bone-chilling circumstances of his predecessor’s death. And before long, he discovers that the ex-prime minister is not just a charismatic politician who made a few mistakes. He’s a dark, tortured man with haunting secrets in his past — secrets with the power to alter world politics. Secrets with the power to kill.
Robert Harris is once again at his gripping best with the most controversial new thriller of the decade.
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