The Hangman's Companion
Always a good sport, Jim McGill, the first private-eye to live in the White House, agrees to accompany his wife, the president, to London to be her escort at a dinner given by the queen-yes, the one who lives in Buckingham Palace. Problem is, he'll have a week in England beforehand, while the president attends a G-8 meeting, with nothing to do. Then a client comes to McGill, the daughter of a former Chicago cop McGill knew but didn't like when he was a captain on the CPD. McGill's former colleague went to Paris to scatter the ashes of his late, French-born wife into the Seine. While tending to that solemn obligation, the former cop managed to get into a brawl with and kill France's national sports hero. The guy from Chicago claims he was only saving a blonde woman from being beaten by the Frenchman, as French law actually required him to do. Only problem is, the blonde has disappeared. The former cop's daughter asks McGill to find the woman and save her father. Beats glad-handing the locals in nearby London, he decides. But he has to wrap up the case in time to get to dinner with the president and the queen. ForeWord Magazine called The President's Henchman "marvelously entertaining." Its sequel, The Hangman's Companion, is even more fun.
The Story Behind This Book
This is the second book in the Jim McGill series. The idea originated with the thought that it would not be too long before the United States elects its first female president, and Hillary Clinton almost made that happen in 2008. So I wondered what would her husband do if he wasn't content to handle only ceremonial functions? Then I thought it would be interesting if the president's husband was the cop who solved the murder of the future president's first husband, married her and then became the first private eye to live in the White House.