Exclusive

By Sandra Brown
Warner, $22.95

ISBN 0446519782

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Also available on audio from Dove Audio, $17.95

Audio ISBN 0787108804

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Review by Sandy Huseby

To what lengths will a reporter go for an "exclusive"? In Sandra Brown's new suspense novel Exclusive, television reporter Barrie Travis is prepared to go to any length. When First Lady Vanessa Armbruster Merritt confides to Travis that the cause of her baby's death was murder, not SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), Travis seizes the opportunity to salvage her flagging career at Washington's lowest-rung television station, WVUE.

Travis unravels more intrigue than she bargains for in this political thriller that is as topical and provocative as any sound bite on the nightly news. She has a reputation as a screw-up, so Travis has added incentive to "get the story" and redeem her reputation.

Teaming with her to investigate the President for the baby's death is Gray Bondurant. Bondurant was a presidential advisor rumored to be the First Lady's lover before resigning to return to his western Wyoming ranch. While Travis grows more attracted to Bondurant, she wonders if he was the baby's father. The First Lady is caught up in her own web of intrigue as she is held a medically controlled captive by the President's personal physician.

Brown delivers twists and turns that maintain the full measure of intrigue and counter-intrigue until the very last page. Drawing on her own television background, Brown offers abundant, credible detail to deliver a suspense-laden perspective on the inside-the-Beltway culture of contemporary political life.