The Second Lady by Irving Wallace – review

Billie Bradford is the First Lady of United States of America; beautiful, intelligent and enchanting and married to Andrew Bradford. As she is preparing and throwing herself in the preparations for the next upcoming President’s election and conferences, there is another First Lady who is also getting ready for replacing the original First Lady.

This lady is the Second Lady, who steals the thunder from Billie and she is the one who sleeps with the President, just long enough to know the state secrets and about the steal the power from West. She is Vera from Russia, a theatre artist and who is plain lucky to have the same features of Billie rather to put it correctly a lookalike body double. The Russian counterparts spend enough time to train and mould Vera into Billie, almost 3 years. The preparation of lookalike is so precise that they even did the touching to her teeth and vagina so that no one can make out if the First Lady is Billie or Vera.

The replacement happens and from then on it is a roller coaster ride for the readers. It doesn’t take much of time for Nora & Parker to find all about the plot but whether those two are able to convince the President of the truth is what makes the story a worth read. Will Andrew Bradford believe them? For Vera, it was a performance of the lifetime and a live one! Will she be able to perform flawlessly and will Billie be able to come alive from the prison? All these questions and much more keep teasing the readers till end.

As we near the end of the story, there is only one person who knows in the end whether she is the First Lady or not….the First Lady herself.

Do read the book; it will sure keep you on tenterhooks.