 Popsugar Reading Challenge category: A book with a 42-year-old main character.
Presidential Mission, by Upton Sinclair. This is book 8 in Sinclair's Lanny Budd series, taking place immediately after A World to Win. It begins with Lanny and his new wife Laurel arriving back in the US, and Lanny debriefing with his close friend, President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The early parts of the book are largely recap, setup, and "checking in" with characters from earlier books. Lanny's success as a secret agent comes from hiding his socialist views, and pretending to be an apolitical businessman who views World War 2 only as a hindrance to his work as an art dealer. Prior to the war, he used a mutual interest in art to get close to some high-ranking Nazis, including Hitler himself. Lanny wants FDR to send him on a spy mission to Germany. FDR refuses, deeming it too dangerous. Naturally, fate intervenes in a big way. Lanny must be incredibly smooth, because people constantly take him at his word, even when it endangers them to do so. Nazis, anti-Nazis, the French underground, they all seem to believe whatever he tells them. Laurel shares his ideals and accepts the risks he takes, but the rest of his family never seems to question his months-long "business trips" away from his now-pregnant wife. There's a particularly heart-rending scene where Lanny is contacted by a Jewish woman in Germany, who se family have all been "deported." She begs Lanny to do a sham marriage with her to get her out of Germany. Lanny can't endanger his mission, so he has to refuse - knowing she won't get out alive. As with all the Lanny Budd novels, it's a mix of history, high-stakes adventure, political idealism, colorful characters, and a satisfying hero.
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