The Wilson Deception

Stewart’s uneven follow-up to 2013’s The Lincoln Deception reunites American doctor Jamie Fraser and Speed Cook, the former baseball player turned Negro-rights activist, in Paris, where scores of international leaders converge in late 1918 to reshape Europe and the Middle East. Asked to consult on Woodrow Wilson’s health, Fraser realizes that the architect of the new world order is mentally and physically fragile. Meanwhile, Cook enlists Fraser to help free his soldier son, Joshua, who has been imprisoned for desertion, despite behaving bravely on the battlefield. American spy Allen Dulles engineers Joshua’s release and placement into Wilson’s entourage as the president’s valet, on the condition that Joshua feed him information about the president. Fraser’s knowledge of the shady arrangement subjects him to blackmail from a Frenchman also keen to know the state of Wilson’s health. Though an overly complex plot undercuts the suspense, Stewart deftly depicts the mood of an era and the colorful figures who shaped it. Agent: Will Lippincott, Lippincott Massie McQuilkin. (Oct.)