Jack McClure

About the Jack McClure series

Jack McClure is a dyslexic former ATF agent whose unconventional way of processing the world -- the same trait that made him an outsider as a kid on the streets of Washington, D.C. -- turns out to be exactly what's needed to see patterns no one else can. First Daughter (2008) opens weeks before Edward Carson is sworn in as president, when his daughter Alli is kidnapped; Alli's late friendship with McClure's own daughter Emma, killed in an accident that shattered his marriage, is the thread that pulls a grieving, guilt-wracked Jack into the search. Van Lustbader builds the series around McClure's damaged personal life as much as the political thriller plotting -- faith, redemption and fatherhood recur as themes across every entry, not just plot mechanics.

The four sequels -- Last Snow, Blood Trust, Father Night and Beloved Enemy -- keep McClure and a now-grown Alli working together against escalating threats to national security, moving through Russian intelligence operations, domestic conspiracy and international terrorism. It's high-body-count Washington political thriller territory, but Van Lustbader's attention to McClure's psychology -- his dyslexia as an asset rather than an obstacle, his unresolved grief -- gives the series a more character-driven spine than the genre's pure-plot norm.