May 16, 2011
For the first in a light espionage series, the pseudonymous Kenneth (the writing team of Maxine Schnall and Kenneth Salikof) have used a reference in a letter Jacqueline Bouvier once wrote as the foundation for an alternate reality that puts Jackie to work for the CIA as an undercover agent. In 1951, family friend Allen Dulles taps Jackie to travel to Paris to help persuade a potential Russian defector to work for the U.S. She's soon busy escaping a relentless assassin, who, conveniently, fails to do her in when he has ample opportunity. Despite splashes of wry cleverness ("Jacqueline Lee Bouvier wasn't exactly dressed for discovering a corpse"), the authors choose to depict Jackie as something of an airhead, who, for example, neglects to take the lens cap off her camera before shooting pictures. Cameos by celebrities of the day, from Audrey Hepburn to François Truffaut, will charm some, but others will have trouble with the plot's leaps of logic.
July 1, 2011
In this fun spy romp, none other than Jacqueline Lee Bouvier is graduating from college in 1951. Desperate to escape an arranged marriage, she is thrilled when Allen Dulles, deputy director of the newly established CIA, offers her a special assignment in Paris. Having studied at the Sorbonne, Jackie is confident and intrigued, but when a simple defection devolves into multiple murders, she calls for backup. Jacques Rivage is a photographer who does contract work for the CIA and is just a few years older than Jackie, and they make a good team personally as well as professionally. This highly enjoyable first collaboration between author Maxine Schnall and screenwriter Kenneth Salikof offers plenty of cameo appearances by luminaries of the post-WWII social and political scenes, including the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Christian Dior, and Marlene Dietrich. The planned sequel, titled Havana to Die For, will continue Jackie's story as the CIA maneuvers to get a promising young politician, John F. Kennedy, on its side.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)