This 2003 stand-alone novel by author William Kent Kreuger is a tour de force. Likeable protagonist Secret Service agent Bo Thorsen is charged with the security of ex-VP Tom Jorgenson's estate when their are visiting dignitaries. After a serious tractor accident, Jorgenson is visited by his daughter Kate, the wife if President Clay Dixon. The accident was engineered by an escaped mental patient who wants to kill both Tom and Kate. There is the basis for a thriller but there is also some over the top scheming by the President's Senator father and a secret government agency. Page turning writing overcomes weaknesses of the plot.
President Clay Dixon, campaigning for reelection, is falling behind in the polls. Worse, the popular first lady, Kate Jorgenson Dixon, disappointed by Clay's lost idealism, resolves to abandon their marriage-a disaster for his faltering campaign, not to mention his emotional stability. Kate flies back to her native rural Minnesota when she hears that her father, ex-VP Tom Jorgenson, has suffered a farming accident that has nearly killed him. The police declare it an unfortunate mishap, but it isn't-an escaped mental patient David Moses has initiated a long-planned vendetta that includes not only Tom but Kate as well. Secret Service agent Bo Thorsen, who protects the first lady, contends with Moses as well as with backstabbing colleagues, scheming Washington politicians and minions of a sinister, secret government agency.