Margaret Truman's final 'Capital' mystery is revealing

[emad]

Margaret Truman, daughter of the 33rd president of the United States, Harry Truman, was a very fine writer. She died in January 2008, at 83, after completing the manuscript we are discussing today, and just prior to its publication. Her three sons, Clifton Truman Daniel, Harrison Gates Daniel and Thomas Washington Daniel, wrote the dedication to their mother.

"Murder Inside the Beltway," was the 24th book in her Capital Crimes Series, plus she had authored 10 other books, biographies of both of her parents.

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This is the story of the D.C. police and an undercover look at the sleazebags in the political world. The story is unsettling and is so realistic to what is going on today in Chicago that it keeps you riveted to your chair.

Will the Chicago story turn out the way Truman has predicted in her murder mystery? Will the sleazebags, the bosses, turn state's evidence against the other corrupt leaders? We will see how this political scene turns out in what Truman calls "ways to beat the cops." The author surely knows the inside story and though she uses fictional names, you can guickly figure out the characters.

http://www.newschief.com/article/20090104/NEWS/901040302/1009/LIVING?Title=Margaret_Truman_s_final__Capital__mystery_is_revealing


"Murder Inside the Beltway." Truman. Ballantine Books. $25.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. She was a lovely woman, funny and friendly and

really down-home. She used to come to my law firm regularly to visit with the man I worked for, who had been her father's Chief of Staff and White House Counsel. She always stopped by my office to say hello. A most gracious woman.

Once, we got to chatting about the man who had been Truman's Treasury Secretary, John Snyder, who used to come by to meet my boss for lunch, and it was part of my job - as assistant general counsel for the airline we represented - to go to the reception aea and escort Secretary Snyder back to Mr. Murphy's office.

Secretary Snyder, who was really old, invariably copped a feel, and once tried to kiss me on the mouth.

I told this to Margaret Truman. She laughed, then she said, "Hurry up and marry him. He's got money and I know how old he is."

Lovely woman.

[monmouth]

2. I remember vividly when she became first daughter. I felt a little sorry

for her, her mother Bess absolutely hated Washington and would run home to Missouri and stay for long periods of time. Margaret was a good daughter and stayed with her father, often serving as hostess I believe. I was very, very young at the time but I do remember the conversations at the dinner table. My parents were repubs but did like Harry and Margaret, Bess, not so much...

[kskiska]

3. She had a ghostwriter

My book collector boss knew him.

[emad]

4. Never heard that one before, pretty sure all she had was an editor.

I knew Margaret pretty well, her mother Bess was my godmother.

[kskiska]

5. At any rate, the rumor has been kicking around for a long time

(snip)
…There have been claims these murder mysteries were ghost-written, perhaps by Donald Bain, but he denies this.<2><3> She continued to write and publish regularly into her eighties.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Truman