What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

Read the summary on the back but can't remember for the life of me the title

How recent? Sounds somewhat like The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon.

No, it wasn't a classic, more like a mass market paperback, most likely published in the 80's

Here's another possibility: Cold Tactics by Ted Allbeury. Previously published under the name The Twentieth Day of January in Britian in 1981.

From Publishers Weekly
A spymaster's dream caper is played out in this gem of a love letter to Cold War espionage fiction. British SIS agent James MacKay is jolted by a press photo of newly elected U.S. President Logan Powell's press secretary, Andrew Dempsey, recognizing him as a former American student in Paris who was active in the French Communist Party under diamond dealer Viktor Kleppe, a deep-cover KGB agent. Suspecting that the KGB is behind Powell's sudden rise from nowhere to the political bigtime, MacKay contacts his CIA buddy Peter Nolan and they convince director Morton Harper to order background checks on Dempsey, Powell and Kleppe. When witnesses support MacKay's suspicions but they are murdered before they can sign statements, Harper tries to get a CIA go-ahead to prove the agents' case before Inauguration Day and avoid a national disaster. The spiny task of unmasking a high-ranking political appointee and confronting an elected president add to the tension as Nolan hurdles bodies and dodges bullets in a race to find witnesses and keep them alive long enough to foil the beautifully crafted KGB plan....
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Cold war buffs will find much of interest in this novel, published in England in 1981 but making its first appearance in the U.S. The premise is intriguing: What if the Soviet Union somehow managed to place its own man in the White House? In this case, the man is Logan Powell, a mild-mannered businessman propelled into the governor's mansion and later the White House through a wide-ranging Communist plot of which he knows absolutely nothing--until the Soviets decide it's time for him to repay a few favors. The novel doesn't appear to have been updated since its original release, which gives the story an unusual feel, like watching a 20-year-old spy series on television. Still, even though the politics are way out-of-date, the story itself is gripping and, in its historical context, plausible. The best cold war espionage novels never really lose their punch; Allbeury, like le Carre, is a master of the genre, and this novel represents some of his best work. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

I think this is it, how did you track it down?

Hmm, pretty sure I searched on WorldCat using keywords "russian spy president" (tried various combinations, and think this is what finally led me to this book), and then basically looked through the several pages of results trying to find anything that looked like a possibility.

Actually came across the reprint named Cold Tactics first. Came close to discounting it based on date, but decided to look to try to find more information, and ended up on Amazon to get a better description than was available on WorldCat or Goodreads at the time. That's where I found the descriptions that mentioned the earlier 1981 edition named The Twentieth Day of January.

I do hope it turns out to be the right book. I did continue to look a little more, and haven't really found anything else that really seems to match.

This dedication shall be rewarded. When I take my rightful place in this world, you shall have a seat in my cabinet.

Sweet! :)

Glad I could help!