Last Snow, by Eric Van Lustbader

Eric Van Lustbader. Last Snow. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2010. 414 pages. ISBN 9780765325150.

Last Snow is the second book in a series of thrillers based on Jack McClure, a former ATF agent who now works as a close consultant to the President. In Russia with the President and his family to attend a summit with the Russian President, McClure is tasked with investigating the death of a senator on the island of Capri, off the Italian coast. Prior to his trip to Capri, the senator's last stop was an unscheduled trip to Kiev. McClure has the President's plane at his disposal and plans to fly to Kiev to track down the senator's last steps.

While I enjoy a good thriller, sometimes they just go too far. This book has the most ludicrous plot of any that I've ever read. Basically, the senator was killed by a group of exiled Russian oil oligarchs in Ukraine because they knew the President would assign McClure to investigate. This is all to get McClure in their clutches so that he can help them with their goals: to keep Ukraine out of the hands of the Russian President. Apparently, Ukraine (in this scenario) has a secret supply of uranium that will be used for nuclear development by Russia, which is intending to use the new U.S. accord as a cover and defense of their planned invasion of Ukraine. Because McClure is dyslexic, he has the ability to picture all the pieces of this puzzle together and come up with a solution, which is why he was targeted for this operation. Meanwhile there is a group of U.S. businessmen who are also after the uranium, double-crossing military men, and other folks complicating the plot. It was almost impossible to keep everyone straight.

Even more ridiculous is the subplot involving the President's daughter, who stows away on the President's plane and follows McClure to Kiev. She's right smack in the middle of all the action, and much of the plot and dialog addresses her teenage angst about what happened to her in the first book of this series, First Daughter. It's all too much, and I wouldn't recommend this book. In fact, I realized belatedly that I also had First Daughter at home. Embarrassingly, I had Last Snow shelved under V and First Daughter shelved under L in my home library. And I'm a cataloger! Either way, I can't bring myself to read First Daughter and it's going on my donation pile.