cover image SHARP FOCUS: A First Daughter Mystery

SHARP FOCUS: A First Daughter Mystery

Susan Ford, with Laura Hayden. . St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne, $24.95 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-312-28499-2

Former first daughter Ford and co-author Hayden nicely blend action, suspense, humor and a little romance in their second collaboration (after 2002's Double Exposure), a "feel-good" whodunit whose characters hug each other almost as much as a sitcom family. Eve Cooper, the 20-something daughter of widowed President Elliot James Cooper, has quite a list of obligations, from playing big sister and mom to her teenaged brother Drew to helping her Aunt Patsy fill in as First Lady. Eve precedes her dad to the U.S. Air Force Academy, where the president is to speak at the commencement exercises for the graduating class. Only minutes after Eve sets down from a specially arranged flight in an Academy glider, another glider smashes into a mountainside, killing its passenger and seriously injuring the pilot. Was this an accident or a mistimed attempt on her life? Before she can absorb the shock of this close call, bullets begin to fly, and now Eve can be certain that she's the intended target. When she discovers her connection to the passenger who died in the glider crash, she realizes she's going to have to dig through a lot of military garbage to find the stinker at the bottom of the plot. Ford's insider's view of the Secret Service and how their charges cope with all the protective measures lends extra interest to a G-rated mystery that often reads as if it were aimed at teens. (July 21)

Forecast:Since the generic title and jacket art give no clue that this is essentially a cozy, readers expecting a hard-edged political thriller may be disappointed. Then again, Ford's celebrity will more than offset any shortcomings of plot or character.