First Daughter by Eric van Lustbader (Review)

Released August 2008 (Forge) * 400 pages * ISBN 13: 9780765321701

First Daughter by Eric van Lustbader is a political thriller that may hit too close to home for some. Jack McClure is one of the Bureau’s top ATF agents, despite finding reading a continual nemesis due to his dyslexia. When the president-elect’s daughter, Alli, is kidnapped mere weeks before the swearing in ceremony, McClure is hand-picked to get her back. What follows is a journey that takes McClure into his past and the country’s future as he tries to save Alli from her kidnapper and the country from itself.

I enjoyed First Daughter (in fact, I read the whole book in 24 hours). It is intricate enough to keep you guessing with enough action and intrigue to keep you from thinking too much. The effects of dyslexia, positive and negative, on Jack McClure’s life and daily functioning are not only interesting but integral to the plot. Also interesting is the interplay between religion and atheism, though this is where, unfortunately, some of First Daughter’s potential audience may be lost.

The struggle of separating church from state, which has increasingly been lost in the United States in the last decade (maybe it has been longer, but I live outside the United States and am going by what enters my consciousness through the international news), is central to First Daughter. There is a battle between secular and religious views fought throughout the book both in the main plot and in the private lives of all the characters.

The characterization of religion and the religious is unflattering (and, arguably, so is that of the secularists), which may offend or at the very least put off some readers. The positions on both sides are extreme. I was not offended, but I was starting to tire of it by the end of the book. For another perspective, see Christine’s review at She Reads Books. First Daughter is worth reading, whichever side of the argument you inhabit, as a glimpse of a possible future, but don’t expect nuanced philosophical positions (it is, after all, a thriller first).

After reading First Daughter I realize that I may have been too hasty in avoiding van Lustbader’s books, which I had been doing primarily because he took over writing Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne series. I’m a fan of the original Robert Ludlum trilogy so I wasn’t thrilled to see the character passed on to another writer. I’m not ready to pick up a Bourne book, but I am going to look for van Lustbader’s other books on the strength of First Daughter.