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| First Daughter | 
 enlarge | Author: Eric Van Lustbader
Publisher: Forge Books
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $3.55
You Save: $22.40 (86%)
New (53) Used (41) Collectible (5) from $2.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  51 reviews
Sales Rank: 102939
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.6
ISBN: 076532170X
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780765321701
ASIN: 076532170X
Publication Date: August 19, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Sometimes the weakness we fear most can become our greatest strength . . . Jack McClure has had a troubled life. His dyslexia always made him feel like an outsider. He escaped from an abusive home as a teenager and lived by his wits on the streets of Washington D.C. It wasn’t until he realized that dyslexia gave him the ability to see the world in unique ways that he found success, using this newfound strength to become a top ATF agent. When a terrible accident takes the life of his only daughter, Emma, and his marriage falls apart, Jack blames himself, numbing the pain by submerging himself in work. Then he receives a call from his old friend Edward Carson. Carson is just weeks from taking the reins as President of the United States when his daughter, Alli, is kidnapped. Because Emma McClure was once Alli’s best friend, Carson turns to Jack, the one man he can trust to go to any lengths to find his daughter and bring her home safely. The search for Alli leads Jack on a road toward reconciliation . . . and into the path of a dangerous and calculating man. Someone whose actions are as cold as they are brilliant. Whose power and reach are seemingly infinite. Faith, redemption, and political intrigue play off one another as McClure uses his unique abilities to journey into the twisted mind of a stone cold genius who is constantly one step ahead of him. Jack will soon discover that this man has affected his life and his country in more ways than he could ever imagine.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 46 more reviews...
 Compelling and Complex Political Thriller August 19, 2008
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
First Daughter is a thrilling tale of political intrigue, a shocking crime, and one man's love and loss that will keep you guessing until the very last page.
Alli Carson, the daughter of President-Elect Edward Carson, has been kidnapped just weeks before the Presidential inauguration. Carson personally calls in ATF agent Jack McClure to aid in the search for Alli.
Brilliant and perceptive, Jack is different; an Outsider. Jack is dyslexic and, while he struggles with simple tasks such as reading, his condition gives him an advantage over the other investigators. Because of the unique way his mind works, he is able to pick out details that would be lost to other people. He also has a personal connection to the case: his daughter Emma was Alli's best friend and college roommate. Emma was killed in a car accident months earlier, and Jack still harbors a tremendous amount of guilt and sorrow because of her death.
During the course of the investigation, it becomes clear to Jack that whoever is behind Alli's kidnapping is also connected to a crime that touched his life twenty five years earlier, and, surprisingly, the last conversation he ever had with Emma.
The novel starts with a jaw-dropping twist just prior to President Carson's inauguration. First Daughter then takes the reader back to the search for Alli as well as points in Jack's adolescence. All of these events build towards the threat we know is waiting at the inauguration. Flashbacks can be tricky things, and generally I'm not a fan of them as a literary device. If used unwisely, flashbacks can ruin the narrative flow and make the story seem choppy and disjointed. Eric Van Lustbader, however, uses these glimpses of the past very effectively. He masterfully weaves the flashbacks into the main narrative so that rather than disrupting the main story, they enhance it.
I enjoyed the political elements of First Daughter, but the real highlight for me was the variety and quality of the characters. There's the ultimate corrupt politician in the outgoing President, the disenchanted teenager in Alli, the anguished mother in Lyn Carson, the gangster with a heart of gold in Jack's surrogate father Gus, all culminating with the broken, grieving father and brilliant investigator in Jack McClure.
First Daughter is a timely political thriller that is sure to excite and surprise readers. Clear some time on your calendar during this election year to enjoy Eric Van Lustbader's latest offering.
 A Hate-filled Liberal Rant September 5, 2008
6 out of 12 found this review helpful
It must be the upcoming election. First Lee Child, now Lustbader, two authors who have degenerated into hate-filled, frothing, rabid fearmongers.
In this book, Republicans are bad, bad people, unless they're basically liberals (or, in this book, "moderates"). Early on you'll meet an evil, bad, nasty, nutty, religious Republican President with ties to big oil, who uses an army of pundits for damage control. It's the most ham-fisted characterization since Dan Brown's in his other book, I forget which.
Unfortunately the author has only one audience in mind - conspiracy theorists who are totally invested in his brand of insane hatred. Because a normal reader - that is, anyone who takes writing and reading seriously, and is informed enough to know that the author is living in a fantasy world - would be sickened to his gut by this display of unmitigated cluelessness, and would find it difficult to get past Chapter One.
I'm not kidding about the writing. "Still, he was of a species - the political animal - that she despised." Then, a chapter later, about someone else, "He was a purely political creature ... and therefore dangerous." There are too many descriptions about gestures and movements. "Nina Miller settled herself by scooping the sides of her skirt under her thighs. Her eyes were bright, inquisitive, completely noncommital." "He had stood up, moved over to the window so sunlight spilled across the pages. He kept his back to the others, shoulders slightly hunched." Yuck.
Now, another pet peeve. The people in this book don't talk like actual people; they talk like they're reading off cliche cards or talking points:
"No plan could be so cruel, no plan could excuse my daughter's death. Better to say it was the work of the devil!"
Father Larrigan looked like he were about to faint. "Mrs. McClure, please! Your blaspheming-"
Horrible writing. No priest would react that way, unless he had been living in a fridge for most of his life. But it seems like the author has never actually met and talked to anyone religious, from the way he imagines they talk. And, as you can see, it's not just religious people who get this kind of cliched claptrap as their dialogue in this book. It's as if most of the book were just filler to let the author spew on about evil Republicans.
Be warned. If you like this kind of stuff, go ahead and buy it. If not, try the first two chapters first.
UPDATE: bad writing is my pet peeve. Here are some more examples of such.
"You shouldn't have promised. You can't guarantee you'll find Alli, let alone bring her back." [How stupid is this? The author has a woman say this, of course.]
"I want you to know ..." "What?" "I've ... had my darkest hours, too." [Yuck]
"That's what a political animal would do." [Get the feeling the book was phoned in?]
"We have the Word of God." "In a book written by men." Egon gave Jack a look he might have reserved for the devil. [Wow, what a stunning, devastating blow to Christianity! Good job, Jack!]
"For more than a decade ... there has been a conspiracy to hijack democracy. ... a cabal of right-wing fanatics has made a pact with religious fundamentalists whose fervent wish is for a pure and Christian America." [This is the purpose of the entire book.]
If you're a conspiracy theorist who still doesn't know that modern science, human rights and American democracy are rooted in Christianity, and that Darwinism was the basis of the Holocaust and racism in modern times (e.g. as in Australia and America), you'll enjoy this book. If you want to learn, read "What's So Great About Christianity" by Dinesh D'Souza.
 Good action marred by laughable political conspiracies and a not-so-hidden message September 1, 2008
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Eric Van Lustbader is better known as the author who has picked up the Bourne series since the death of Robert Ludlum. This book has some similarities to that series in that we have vast government conspiracies, brainwashing and one man versus the system.
Positives:
The action in the book is strong.
Negatives:
The back story Van Lustbader told to introduce us to the main character, Jack McClure, is much more interesting than the main plotline.
The politics in this book are laughable. The President is a thinly disguised clone of Bush43 (Iraq, 9/11, Patriot Act, Faith-based initiatives, etc.) except he has the paranoia and anger level of 3 or 4 Richard Nixons. The President makes new policy initiatives in his last week in office. With less than a month to go he has a major negotiation with the Russians, even though everyone knows that no one negotiates with a President with so little time left in office - his replacement will just countermand all of them in a matter of days!
Atheist terrorist groups abound (or maybe they don't there's a big plot hole here), even though there's no such thing. People will kill for their religious beliefs, but I can't imagine anyone killing over their lack of belief...
Even more annoying is Van Lustbader's insistence on ridiculing religion throughout the book. The President is a religious fanatic. The President-elect uses religion as a tool to get elected. The minister who is out to save the neighborhood sells out in a political alliance. A grieving mother finds comfort in the church of her youth - but she leaves it and now acts much more sane. A religious peer of McClure (the only one) ends up leaving the church and McClure congratulates him for it. The bad guy comes off as sort of a good guy in this anti-religious mindset.
It is one thing to decry religion in politics (I'm very religious and I don't like religion in bed with politics) but, it is entirely another thing to decry religion altogether. Maybe Van Lustbader thought he was being subtle, but he was about as subtle as a wrecking ball.
Recommendation: There are plenty of other action/political thrillers out there.
A Potentially Good Story Overshadowed By The Author's Personal Agenda September 5, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This story had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, it was never realized.
Although the author could have made this a great novel, he failed to deliver. Instead of focusing on the main plot, Van Lustbader pursued an agenda of anti-religious bigotry. Much of the action is implausible. Some of these are not just the run of the mill farfetched events in a novel, they are too over the top to have any credibility. The editing is also substandard.
The main idea of the story is that ATF agent Jack McClure is recruited by the president-elect to find his recently kidnapped daughter. The McClure character could have been a great one, but was not well developed. Also, the author tried to turn McClure's dyslexia into some sort of mystical super gift that gives him the ability to 'see' things that no one else can in multiple dimensions. This silly plot device was never expanded to the point that it would make any sense.
Mr. Van Lustbader did his best to portray any people of faith as moronic and phony. One example is this: 'But Father Larrigan wasn't full of grace, nor was any priest.' This is just one example of many.
The errors included ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) listed as AFT in at least two places.
There are a lot better action novels out there. I'd suggest anything by Brad Thor, Vince Flynn, or many others before this. I'd recommend skipping this one.
The Hunt for the Manchurian Candidate August 19, 2008
4 out of 10 found this review helpful
The daughter of the president-elect has been kidnapped for the purpose of being "programmed" to complete a world-changing deed on inauguration day. And standing between this hideous crime is ATF agent Jack McClure.
In this race against time with revenge, manipulation, the global warfare in the new century and the strange partnerships in the shadows of diplomacy, author Eric Van Lustbader takes the familiar foundation of the action thriller and adds a few twists, with mixed results.
Van Lustbader is the author of three books in the Bourne franchise, but this novel treads a different path with a possible recurring hero in McClure.
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