HUNTING TEDDY ROOSEVELT

After he completes his second term as president of the United States, Roosevelt is wildly popular, but promises, following the example of George Washington, to step aside and allow someone else to lead the country, becoming “Citizen Roosevelt.” He pledges to his successor, William Howard Taft, to refrain from public comment on politics for a year, and to that end, embarks on an expedition to Africa to collect game specimens for the Smithsonian Museum and New York’s American Museum of Natural History. For all his popularity, Roosevelt has accumulated some powerful enemies, especially in the business world where he is generally seen as a “madman” and a “financial ignoramus” whose misguided economic policies strangled commerce. Among those enemies is John Pierpont Morgan, who arranges for one of Roosevelt’s bodyguards, Jimmy Dooley, to ensure the former president meets with a tragic accident. Dooley has his own personal grudge to bear—he holds Roosevelt responsible for his older brother Mickey’s imprisonment. Mickey, a New York City police officer, got caught up in Roosevelt’s anti-corruption campaign as police commissioner. Ross imaginatively conceives a gripping story that paints a vivid tableau of both Roosevelt and the tumultuous times. In addition, one subplot could make a novel of its own—Maggie Dunn, Roosevelt’s childhood friend and former flame, now a “muckraking Hearst reporter,” follows him to Africa to detail the safari and to discover his political ambitions, if any. The author’s prose is punchy and full of verve, and the plot is generously filled with drama. For readers in search of a novel that combines historical rigor with cinematic action, this is a worthy choice.

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