It's Classified

In her second novel, Wallace (Eighteen Acres) presents another story of politics%E2%80%94national and personal. Opening with the impeachment trial of Republican President Charlotte Kramer, related to circumstances caused by Democratic Vice President Tara Meyer, Wallace (former White House Communications Director) infuses the proceedings with insider language. Despite its promising premise, the narrative becomes entangled with its terrorist plot, affairs, and a character's personal health condition. While Wallace's prose is smooth, the plot is not particularly gripping, nor are the Ambien- and caffeine-fueled characters developed enough to elicit reader sympathy, even as Tara slides from "the most admired woman in America" to an exhausted woman who will "offer her resignation in return for immunity for all related criminal and civil charges." With its realistic depiction of politics and messy human relationships, the novel will go down smoothly with no aftertaste, bitter or otherwise. (Sept.)