The Ghost/ Robert Harris

A very interesting and sometimes exciting novel about a British writer who is cajoled into "ghost writing" the biography of the very recently retired Prime Minister, Adam Lang, after the man originally hired to do the job is found dead from drowning under what might be considered mysterious circumstances. The author, clearly, has Tony Blair in mind as he deals with the question of why the Prime Minister embraced the Bush administration’s policies at every turn at great political risk to himself and to the dismay of the people of Great Britain. In his novel, Harris echoes those who think there might have been some obligatory reasons for the Prime Minister’s persistent allegiance to the US and he attempts a somewhat sinister motive that involves the American CIA.

The new ghost writer tells the story in first person; Lang and his wife have secluded themselves (with security and entourage) at Martha’s Vineyard in the home of a wealthy publisher to work on his memoirs. He has been offered the unheard of sum of ten million dollars for the finished product. Soon after our new ghost writer and narrator arrives at the estate , the International Criminal Court of the Hague announces to the world that they have indicting evidence to support an investigation into the former Prime Minister’s collusion with the CIA in the capture and mistreatment (torture-water boarding) of some terrorist suspects. While this would seem to put the memoirs into a cocked hat, the publisher, seeing a marketing opportunity, puts pressure on the writer to finish his work even sooner than planned.
The Lang team persuades Lang to go to Washington to seek support from powerful congress people and the administration. This turns out to be a bad move in the eyes of the Brits who think he should have come home and seek the support of his own people.

The ghost writer has now examined the notes and research of his predecessor and has interviewed Lang and his wife. There are things that need explaining; when he finds, on the back of a photograph, the cell phone number of Lang’s most critical and dangerous political opponent, he violates the neutral position a ghost writer must take and begins an investigation. The investigation and subsequent interviews reveal Lang’s close association with the CIA, and the writer begins to suspect that the former writer was following the same trail and was killed because of the things he learned. So the novel works it way on to a thriller with a tidy and interesting climax. In this story, the PM has an affair with a member of his cabinet and the PM’s wife has a one night stand with our ghost writer

I think it was a good read; Harris was politically involved with Tony Blair as he rose to become Prime Minister.