This is JIM LEHRER’s fifteenth novel. He is also the author of two memoirs and three plays and is the executive editor and anchor of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his novelist wife, Kate. They have three daughters.
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“Three may keep a secret if two of ’em are dead.”
–Poor Richard’s Almanack[pg. 27 of mss]

R Taylor arrives in Philadelphia for the funeral of his longtime friend Dr. Wally Rush with a heavy heart. Not only has the world lost one of its preeminent, Pulitzer Prize—winning American Revolution historians, but R has lost his mentor, the man who led him to devote his life’s work to the study of “The First American,” Benjamin Franklin. The bond between them was sealed when R did Wally a favor that could never be revealed. But Wally saved one final secret for R, disclosed in a letter conveyed by the will’s executor.

Written in the slow, painful script of the professor’s last days, the note delivers an incredible bombshell. Wally, it seems, had stumbled upon twelve handwritten pages in a code commonly used by spies during the revolutionary war. The pages refer to George Washington, John Adams, Alexander... [More...] [Edit review] [Delete review]

PRAISE FOR JIM LEHRER

The Franklin Affair
“This is an amazing as well as delightful novel. Historically savvy and revealing, it captures some fascinating controversies about Franklin’s life and provides a deft satire of the world of academic writers. Yet it’s also a fun tale of mystery, sleuthing, and romance done with great literary flair.”
–WALTER ISAACSON, author of Benjamin Franklin

Flying Crows
“[A] touching novel about lost souls, loneliness, and life’s small triumphs . . . Lehrer’s fourteenth novel is an expertly researched, warmly told tale, rich in suspense and drama. . . . A highly personal story, quiet in tone and scope, yet booming in emotional intensity.”
–Publishers Weekly

The Special Prisoner
“[Lehrer] runs through his plot deftly. He springs surprise after surprise on the reader.”
–Los Angeles... [More...] [Edit review] [Delete review]

ONE

Rebecca Kendall Lee, on the attack, made an obvious point of staring at Reginald Raymond Taylor.

“Less than five percent of the aphorisms in the almanacs of your own great Ben Franklin were original,” she said. “The rest were filched—plagiarized—in meaning if not words, isn’t that right, R?”

“R” had long ago become Taylor’s preferred way to be addressed because he detested both of his given names.

More important at this moment, he detested Rebecca.

She stood at her place at a table in a room at the Cosmos Club, a private club in Washington, for this early morning confrontation with R and three other historians of the American Revolution. They were looking into formal accusations against her that had arisen from the recent rumble of newspaper reports on alleged plagiarism and other crimes of creation by some popular writers of American history.

R succcessfully fought off any... [More...] [Edit review] [Delete review]