Margaret Truman

The murder, in the executive mansion, of the secretary of state prompts an immediate and sweeping investigation of all suspects, including the president and his family, an investigation that leads to a second astonishing murder, in a new edition of the first novel in the Capital Crimes series. Reprint.

Murder in the White House

Jeremy Anderberg

As a POTUS history nerd, I’ve long been intrigued by Margaret Truman’s writings. As the daughter of a president, she had a unique knowledge of the White House’s—and Washington, DC’s—inner workings. In addition to some biographical work on her parents, she also penned a mystery series called Capital Crimes, which focused on dastardly deeds set in our nation’s capital city. There’s not a recurring character, which almost makes the series easier to digest; it’s sometimes intimidating to jump into a long-running set of books, especially if you’re a completist like me.

Nonetheless, I insisted on starting with Book #1 of Capital Crimes. Though it wasn’t the most tightly-plotted mystery story, Murder in the White House was plenty entertaining for the couple days it took to plow through.

You can’t beat the intrigue of the premise, which really propelled me through the whole thing: in the upstairs of the White House, the Secretary of State is murdered. Given the restricted and highly monitored nature of that space, there’s only so many people who could have done it—is it possible that the president himself is a suspect?

I saw the ending coming, but how Truman got us there was still quite satisfying. There’s enough twists and turns to keep you interested, but not so many as to make your head spin.

Though there seems to be some mystery as to how much Truman actually wrote, I love the idea—no matter how mythic—of Margaret recalling her White House days while tapping away at the typewriter. Since her death in 2008, the series has been taken up by a couple other authors—the latest of which just hit my doorstep (which is what prompted my finding the first in the series).

If you need a fun political romp, Murder in the White House is a great pick.

Murder in the White House

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