Murder in the Map Room [Large Print] [Paperback]

Elliott Roosevelt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1998

It is 1943, and a wartime visit from Madame Chiang Kai-Shek has thrown the White House into a frenzy of preparation. Eleanor Roosevelt accommodates Madame's entourage, serves the finest meals rationing allows, and accompanies the smooth-tongued General's wife from social functions to sessions of Congress. The terror in Europe shows no sign of abating, and the United States cannot commit to focusing solely on Asia, despite Madame's wishes. The First Lady must walk a fine line between defending the country's interests and offending her guest. When a shoe salesman is found dead in the Map Room, however, his throat slit from ear to ear, her diplomatic resolve begins to crumble. What was a shoe salesman doing in the White House, mere feet from Madame Chiang Kai-Shek's bedroom? And who on earth killed him? As Eleanor and the Secret Service are drawn deeper and deeper into the mystery, the questions multiply. The shoe companies have no records of Chinese salesmen, and there is a high level of opium in the victim's blood. Madame Chiang Kai-Shek's staff is involved in some way, but how? And who is the beautiful Asian woman in the photograph in the victim's pocket?

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Still another room in FDR's White House is profaned by an unseemly corpse, this one of inoffensive wholesale shoe salesman George Shen, who certainly had no business in the White Houseand who left no record, despite stiff wartime security, of ever having signed in. So alongside the relatively feeble mystery of whodunit (think Japanese spies, secret codes, little red pills with unintended side effects) lies the considerably more clever mystery of how-did-he-get-in. The role of the First Lady, the nominal heroine of a series that's outlived her author son's death (Murder at Midnight, 1997, etc.), is subordinated to those of Secret Service agent Robert Kirkwal and D.C. Chief of Detectives Captain Edward Kennelly, both of whom find themselves, for security reasons, abruptly named Commanders in the Naval Reserve. But the real star here is Soong Mei-ling, Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, on an official visit to importune the US to deflect more of its war effort from the European theater to the Japanese, who are harassing her husband, the corrupt Generalissimo who prattles of peace and freedom while hiding behind his scant divisions back in his petty fiefdom. The tangled, predictable plot, with its legions of sinister Orientals, springs to life every time Madame Chiang sweeps into the room. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"Eleanor the Private Eye is utterly endearing." --The New York Times

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 254 pages
• Publisher: Wheeler Pub Inc (August 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568956193
• ISBN-13: 978-1568956190
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,953,892 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Suspenseful with diplomacy and war involved, August 6, 1999

By 

Mary Cooper (LaGrange Park, Illinois USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Murder in the Map Room (Eleanor Roosevelt Mysteries) (Hardcover)

A Japanese spy is found murdered in the top-secret map room of the White House in 1943 during World War II while Madame Chiang Kai-Shek and her entourage are visiting the Roosevelts. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, along with the D.C. Chief of Detectives and a Secret Service Agent, solve the mystery. But Mrs. Roosevelt is shown going about her duties, for example, attending a celebrity auction and only assisting the professionals investigating the murder. Her son, author Elliott Roosevelt, realistically portrays his mother and father, FDR, and probably Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, too, who is a great character who dominates every scene she's in. Interestingly, the author mentions 19 year-old Margaret Truman who became a fellow mystery writer. The story was suspenseful especially with diplomacy involved and the urgency of the war going on. For someone who's been dead for nine years, Elliott Roosevelt writes a good mystery although Eleanor Roosevelt is always fascinating to read about.