Jim Lehrer Books In Order

One-Eyed Mack Books In Publication Order

  1. Kick the Can (1988)
  2. Crown Oklahoma (1989)
  3. The Sooner Spy (1990)
  4. Lost and Found (1991)
  5. Short List (1992)
  6. Fine Lines (1994)
  7. Mack to the Rescue (2008)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. Blue Hearts (1993)
  2. The Last Debate (1995)
  3. The White Widow (1996)
  4. Purple Dots (1998)
  5. The Special Prisoner (2000)
  6. No Certain Rest (2002)
  7. Flying Crows (2004)
  8. The Franklin Affair (2005)
  9. The Phony Marine (2006)
  10. Eureka (2007)
  11. Oh, Johnny (2009)
  12. Super (2010)
  13. Top Down (2013)

Non-Fiction Books In Publication Order

  1. A Bus of My Own (1992)
  2. Tension City (2011)

One-Eyed Mack Book Covers

Standalone Novels Book Covers

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Jim Lehrer Books Overview

Kick the Can

Now available in paperback for the first time is Jim Lehrer’s beloved coming of age novel, eagerly praised by reviewers from coast to coast. After introducing The One Eyed Mack in Kick the Can, Lehrer follows his hero’s later career as Oklahoma’s lieutenant governor through a series of comic novels Crown Oklahoma and Sooner Spy, both available in paperback from Council Oak Books that have him solving mysteries in his spare time.

Crown Oklahoma

When Jim Lehrer turned his hand to writing fiction, the results were praised by reviewers from coast to coast. Now available in paperback, this series has ‘the most endearing cast of characters since the days of Damon Runyon’ The Denver Post. The hero is ‘One Eyed Mack, ‘ the lieutenant governor of Oklahoma, a likeable and surprisingly insightful politico. Lehrer deftly mixes fact and fiction to create stories so bizarre, readers swear it must be fact.

The Sooner Spy

222 pp. 6 1/4 x 9 1/4. Gray boards with qtr orange cloth, stamped in gold on spine. Very light wear. Signed by author on half title page signature only. Glossy white dj, lightly worn.

Short List

Lieutenant Governor Mack of Oklahoma gets a fluke chance at the vice presidential nomination when he stands in for his ailing boss, addresses the Democratic National Convention, and receives resounding acclaim that places him on the Short List.

Fine Lines

Oklahoma’s lieutenant governor, One Eyed Mack, is called in by Governor Buffalo Joe Hayman to investigate once again when a killer begins targeting the state’s legislators of both parties for murder.Tour.

Mack to the Rescue

A new One Eyed Mack novel takes on the politics of Middle AmericaWhen he’s not anchoring the NewsHour on PBS, Jim Lehrer may be found casting a satirical eye at America s heartland in such books as Crown Oklahoma and The Sooner Spy. Mack to the Rescue is the latest of his successful One Eyed Mack novels. Set in Oklahoma and tracing the exploits of a fictional lieutenant governor, the series allows Lehrer to address contemporary national issues with a unique blend of humor and insight. When Governor Buffalo Joe Hayman calls for privatizing state government, Mack decides to oppose his re election bid, but a medical mishap prevents Mack from running. While attending a lieutenant governors conference in Washington, he suddenly collapses. Hospitalized, he is given a heart bypass operation intended for another patient. Mack backs out of the race and throws his support behind his flaky friend and former state house Speaker, Luther Wallace. Embroiled in a medical malpractice suit while following Luther s questionable shenanigans, Mack finally has no choice but to come to the rescue when the governor s race takes a particularly ugly turn. Rife with Oklahoma isms and brim*ming with memorable characters, this is political satire at its best, employing ironic twists and sharp dialogue to poke fun at government foibles. Inventive and hilarious, it demonstrates once again that Lehrer knows Middle America and its ways all too well.

Blue Hearts

Charles Avenue Henderson and Bruce Conn Clark shared a CIA mission in late November of 1963 that helped change the course of world history. When Henderson, now living the quiet life of a bed and breakfast owner with his beloved wife in rural West Virginia, approaches former Secretary of State Clark at a posh D.C. restaurant and suggests they let some of yesterday’s secrets out today Clark responds with a plan that puts Henderson’s life at risk and tests both of their dormant ‘spook’ skills. Henderson underestimated the depth of Clark’s secrets and Clark underestimated Henderson’s resolve. It’s a mistake that neither will make again as the old allies match cloaks and daggers against each other.

The Last Debate

For the first time in paperback, just in time for the 2000 presidential election: the renowned PBS anchor’s page turning fictional look into the brutal truths of presidential politics and journalism.

It is the night of the presidential debate. The election is eight days away. Republican nominees James Meredith, a fundamentalist Christian whose ambitions border on white supremacy, is pitted against four reporters who have just discovered damaging information that could ruin his career. What unfolds during The Last Debate will change the course of electoral politics and the news business forever…
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As ‘the ultimate insider outsider’ Washington Post, and as a moderator of presidential debates past and present, journalist and PBS news anchor Jim Lehrer knows the world he writes about only too well. His novel a satirical and absorbing story of the behind the scenes world of news journalism also exposes the duplicitous posing and posturing of made for TV political events. And with the 2000 elections looming ahead, the targets of his satire religious fundamentalists, self important journalists, feral network programming heads could not be more timely.

The White Widow

Praised by the New York Times Book Review as ‘an…
affecting morality tale,’ Jim Lehrer’s devastating White Widow brings the reader to the brink of one man’s unstoppable, ruinous passion for a complete stranger. Jack T. Oliver has a solid marriage, a cozy house in Corpus Christi, and a job he loves as a driver for the Great Western Trailways bus line. In a few weeks, Jack is going to be promoted to Master Operator in recognition of his years of perfect service and on time driving. It’s a good life. Until a White Widow boards his bus, on a one way ticket from Victoria to Corpus Christi. A White Widow is a wild card, a woman traveling alone who can change the course of a driver’s life, and not always for the best. What happens when Jack Oliver’s White Widow pas*ses through his life is as unforgettable as it is irrevocable. Within weeks, without ever even learning her name, he will fall passionately in love and lose everything he has, a few things he never had, and some he never thought about until they were gone.

Purple Dots

Washington, D.C., is a town full of powerful people with powerful, often conflicting agendas, and no one knows this better than Jim Lehrer, the preeminent capital newscaster and novelist. His new book is a witty, provocative political mystery about power play and favor swapping at the highest levels of government, written with his own unique blend of political savvy and irreverent humor. Joshua Bennett has just been nominated by the president to be the new director of the CIA. He’s the ideal candidate, and everyone agrees his confirmation hearing should be a mere formality. But this is Washington, where nothing as straightforward as choosing the most qualified person for a crucial job can be counted upon. Unfortunately for Bennett, someone’s political agenda hinges on his confirmation being vetoed, but he’s damned if he can find out whose. In need of good covert help he can trust, Bennett turns to a little known but highly efficient cadre of former CIA spies living in semiretirement in nearby West Virginia. This odd team of sixty plus year old spooks, boasting a combined array of exceptional if eccentric and largely illegal talents, embarks upon a wildly unorthodox Washington power struggle that is no less earnest for being conducted in absolute secrecy. And most secret of all is the highly coveted purple dot the ultimate national perk. Following the enormous breakout success of Lehrer’s bestselling previous novel, White Widow, Purple Dots will fascinate and amuse even more readers, while confirming their worst fears about how our government really operates.

The Special Prisoner

Following the enormous success of his two bestselling previous novels, White Widow and Purple Dots, Jim Lehrer takes on a new and controversial subject in this ambitious story about an Ameri can soldier who, many years after the fact, is forced to relive his harrowing experience in the Second World War. The Special Prisoner takes its title from the designation the Japanese government gave U.S. airmen held prisoner during World War II an indication of the severity with which these foreign devils responsible for bombing Japanese cities were to be treated. John Quincy Watson was a skilled young pilot flying B 29s over Japan when he was shot down and taken prisoner in 1945. Fifty years later, now a prominent religious figure nearing retirement, Bishop Watson believes he has long since overcome the excruciating memories of his months as a POW. But a chance sighting of the now equally elderly Japanese officer who repeatedly tortured him instantly transports the Bishop back to that unendurable time, and he finds himself overwhelmed by an un controllable desire for vengeance. The result for Watson is both a vivid return to the horrors of his past and the triggering of a new series of events that are also horrific and tragic. Engaging and emotionally poignant, The Special Prisoner delves into the complicated issue of war guilt and forgiveness, starkly portrayed in the characters of an officer from a country that refuses to admit any wrongdoing and a clergyman who is committed to a belief that to forgive is divine. This is new and controversial territory for Lehrer, and he treats it with passion and respect, while writing in the highly readable, engaging style that is his trademark. This fascinating story of what’s fair in war and what’s fair afterward is a dramatic new novel from the veteran Washington author and newscaster.

No Certain Rest

On a ridge overlooking Burnside Bridge the focus of the Battle of Antietam souvenir hunters find the unmarked grave of an unknown Union officer. Don Spaniel, an archeologist in the National Park Service, is called in to examine the remains. He soon discovers that the officer was murdered and that his identification disk could not possibly belong to him, since its rightful owner is buried elsewhere. So who was this officer? Where did he come from? And why was he killed?Spaniel’s obsessive investigation leads not only to his reliving the horrible carnage that occurred at Burnside Bridge over a century before, but to the true identity of the Union officer and the reason why another body resides in his grave in a small New England town. In a swift narrative deftly combining the past with the present, Jim Lehrer has created an engrossing story that will appeal to a wide variety of readers.

Flying Crows

With Flying Crows, veteran newsman and bestselling author Jim Lehrer has written his most powerful novel, a work that moves masterfully from past to present and back again to solve the mystery that is American mayhem. In 1997, police discover an old homeless man in the Kansas City train station. Birdie Carlucci claims he has lived there since 1933, hiding out in the storeroom of a Harvey House restaurant. Kansas City cop Lieutenant Randy Benton decides to discover the truth behind Birdie’s tale and finds himself on a ride that leads ever backward into our country s bloodstained past. Benton s investigation reveals the story of young Birdie, incarcerated in a brutal insane asylum where the preferred method of treatment is beating with a baseball bat. In that hopeless environment, though, he s befriended by another patient, Josh Lancaster, once dismissed as a lost cause but snatched back from the brink by a compassionate doctor. But what is the secret of Lancaster s involvement in an infamous Civil War encounter between Confederate bushwhackers and Union soldiers? And what truly happened after Birdie escaped from the asylum on the famous Flying Crow train?As Benton returns to the present day, he wonders: How much, if any of it, really took place? What were the true public and private traumas of these two troubled men who can t forget what they ve seen or merely imagined?Inspired by real events, Flying Crows is a novel that moves as inexorably as a train in the night to a shattering conclusion one that reveals the many meanings of imprisonment and escape, and all the eccentricities and tragedies of the American soul. From the Hardcover edition.

The Franklin Affair

Three may keep a secret if two of em are dead.
Poor Richard’s Almanack pg. 27 of mss

R Taylor arrives in Philadelphia for the funeral of his longtime friend Dr. Wally Rush with a heavy heart. Not only has the world lost one of its preeminent, Pulitzer Prize winning American Revolution historians, but R has lost his mentor, the man who led him to devote his life s work to the study of The First American, Benjamin Franklin. The bond between them was sealed when R did Wally a favor that could never be revealed. But Wally saved one final secret for R, disclosed in a letter conveyed by the will s executor.

Written in the slow, painful script of the professor s last days, the note delivers an incredible bombshell. Wally, it seems, had stumbled upon twelve handwritten pages in a code commonly used by spies during the revolutionary war. The pages refer to George Washington, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison, and level a shocking charge that Benjamin Franklin committed a heinous crime.

Wally, not wanting to foul the image of his lifelong hero, had kept this monumental secret until his death. But as R races to unravel the mystery, he faces an onslaught of obstacles. Vicious blackmail, a threat of sabotage against his own career, and grave personal doubts threaten to overtake R as he struggles with a discovery that has the potential to completely alter the fabric of American history.

Rich with revelations, rife with the darkest depths of deceit and mystery, and enlightened by the unparalleled insights of America s first patriots, The Franklin Affair is a tense, constantly surprising novel about the ultimate quest for truth and justice.

From the Hardcover edition.

The Phony Marine

Veteran newsman and acclaimed novelist Jim Lehrer exposes worlds both intimate and universal, builds suspense with an accomplished hand, and reveals a savvy understanding of the modern social landscape. With The Phony Marine, Lehrer dives into a highly controversial topic and delivers his most compelling character portrait to date.

Hugo Marder is about as unremarkable as they come. On the floor of the Washington, D.C., branch of Nash Brothers, one of the country’s most respected men s stores, Hugo is a wise, reserved salesman. At home, he is a solitary, divorced fifty year old with few friends and an eBay addiction. But he has always wanted to make more of his life, dreaming of becoming an artist or a cartoonist. When he was younger, he d always wanted to be a marine.

Late one night, Hugo stumbles upon an online auction for a Silver Star, the medal awarded for bravery in battle. He bids and wins. But it is only after he places the lapel pin on his jacket that he realizes the enormity of his actions. Suddenly, ordinary people begin to treat him differently, with dignity and respect. Is he really going to pretend the honor is his own?

As Hugo wrestles with his conscience, a transformation begins to take place. He studies the life of a marine, learns the military terminology, body builds at the gym, even gets a crew cut. When he is reborn as a former marine, his life immediately changes. Is it possible that his deception has unlocked the man he always wanted to be? Through numerous challenges and more than one terrifying ordeal, Hugo Marder must prove his worth. And in the end, he must ask himself: What is a hero?

Alive with detail, emotional depth, and unexpected twists of plot, The Phony Marine is a tense, revelatory work of fiction that will cause every reader to consider his or her own stance on what truly makes someone great.

From the Hardcover edition.

Eureka

Ever reliable and responsible, Otis Halstead is a father, a husband one half of a well dressed couple of substance , and the CEO of Kansas Central Fire and Casualty. He has never done anything out of the ordinary. Until now. The change in Otis starts with an antique toy fire truck, the exact model he had pined for at age ten but never received. Though it is now a collectible costing $12,350, he will buy it because he can. Next comes a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun, ordered from the Nostalgia Today catalog. A Kansas City Chiefs regulation NFL helmet follows. But Otis’s real coup is the purchase of his one true childhood passion: a red 1952 Cushman Pacemaker motor scooter. For his baffled wife, Sally, this is the final straw. She insists that he see a shrink a sloppy man with flowing hair who uses terms like mature men in crisis and second childhood syndrome. Otis is unimpressed and extremely insulted by the doctor s insinuation that his baldness is to blame for his sudden interest in toys. But it s not until tragedy strikes uncomfortably close to home that Otis decides he wants out of his sensible, safe life in Eureka, Kansas. And so, a few weeks before his sixtieth birthday, Otis leaves town, heading west on old U.S. 56, a corporate CEO wearing a football helmet, riding a forty year old motor scooter, and with a BB gun strapped to the side. One might say he was in for an adventure. Otis would say he was finally about to experience life. Jim Lehrer has created an acute, laugh out loud, and endearing portrait of American middle age. With abundant wit and a sharp sense of the lives most of us lead, Eureka takes us on a journey through the unfulfilled dreams of childhood. In Otis Halstead, Lehrer has created his most brilliant and winning character to date.

Oh, Johnny

Call me Johnny. Oh Johnny Oh. That’s what my mom calls me. You can call me anything. But mainly call me a ballplayer. A center fielder. I m good, and I m going to be even better. pgs. 36,37 A talented athlete, Johnny Wrigley firmly believes that someday he will play major league baseball. But on the way to his dreams, Johnny finds his life unexpectedly taking a detour. In April 1944, Johnny is a newly minted marine on a troop train heading west for California, where he will be shipped overseas to fight in the Pacific Theater. At a brief stop in Wichita, Johnny gets off the train and falls in love. She s giving apples and cigarettes to the marines, and she is the most beautiful girl Johnny has ever seen. In a storeroom at the station, they share an intimacy that Johnny will treasure for the next two years at war and beyond. As a flamethrower operator on the suicide squad in Peleliu, Johnny sees the worst of battle. Scores of his fellow soldiers are killed around him, but memories of Betsy Luck the private name Johnny has given his Kansas love keep him safe. Yet nothing prepares Johnny for the combat in Okinawa and the terrible events that will haunt him forever. Two years later, Johnny is back in Wichita, searching for the girl he wants to marry. But fate has different plans for Johnny, his long dreamed of baseball career, and the girl whose memory helped him survive. Full of rich and vivid descriptions of Johnny s experiences both as a marine and as a ballplayer, Oh, Johnny is a compelling, emotionally complex story of one man s remarkable coming of age and Jim Lehrer at his best.

Super

In the tradition of Murder on the Orient Express, Jim Lehrer brings together a cast of characters as fascinating as the historic train that will carry them from Chicago to Los Angeles. In its heyday, the Santa Fe railroad’s famous Super Chief was so replete with wealth and celebrity that it became known as The Train of the Stars. And so we find it in April of 1956, embarking from the Windy City for its trip across the Plains to the West Coast. Climbing aboard is an amazing spectrum of passengers. There s Darwin Rinehart, a once great Hollywood producer whose most recent movie was a total flop and who now faces bankruptcy and shame. In a dark recess of a train car hides a mysterious, disheveled, sickly man who has not paid for a ticket, smuggled inside by an unscrupulous porter. Millionaire Otto Wheeler arrives in a wheelchair; deathly ill, he knows that this will be his last trip on the great train. Clark Gable causes a stir when he steps aboard, and though he s ridden these rails for years, indulging in booze and women with equal fervor, those around him sense that this time, something is different. And finally there s former President Harry Truman, distinguished, congenial, and constantly accompanied, for his protection, by a railroad detective. As the Super Chief pulls out of Dearborn Station, the passengers famous and infamous, anonymous and enigmatic can t possibly imagine what lies ahead. For as the train gains speed, a series of deadly events unfolds. Full of remarkable detail and passion for a lost world of opulence and all its intrigue and delights, Jim Lehrer s Super spins a complex web of suspense. The twists and turns will keep readers turning the pages at top speed to finish one of the most captivating stories of Lehrer s prolific career.

A Bus of My Own

Whether the subject is a hilarious NewsHour near disaster or a personal crisis, Jimmy Charles Lehrer’s life makes terrific copy. His consuming passion for the great days of the intercity bus line; his youthful dreams, losses and embarrassments, his picaresque career as a reporter interviewing murderers, con men, Cardinals, and Elvis; his entry into public television; his observations on journalistic ethics, back roads America, and the JFK assassination to which Lehrer had an unusual front row seat; his foolproof method to stop smoking have a heart attack; his lifelong hunger to possess ‘A Bus of My Own‘ all percolate with the candor and wit that are Jim Lehrer’s trademarks. This memoir will have readers thinking, chortling, even getting misty eyed, and will be remembered long after the final page has been turned.

Tension City

In his quiet but intense way, Jim Lehrer earns the trust of the major political players of our time, notes Barbara Walters. He explains and exposes their hopes and dreams, their strengths and failures as they try to put their best foot forward. From the man widely hailed as the Dean of Moderators comes a lively and revealing book that pulls back the curtain on more than forty years of televised political debate in America. A veteran newsman who has presided over eleven presidential and vice presidential debates, Jim Lehrer gives readers a ringside seat for some of the epic political battles of our time, shedding light on all of the critical turning points and rhetorical faux pas that helped determine the outcome of America’s presidential elections and with them the course of history. Drawing on his own experiences as the man in the middle seat, in depth interviews with the candidates and his fellow moderators, and transcripts of key exchanges, Lehrer isolates and illuminates what he calls the Major Moments and killer questions that defined the debates, from Kennedy Nixon to Obama McCain. Oftentimes these moments involve the candidates themselves and are seared into our collective political memory. Michael Dukakis stumbles badly over a question about the death penalty. Dan Quayle compares himself to John F. Kennedy once too often. Barack Obama and John McCain barely make eye contact over the course of a ninety minute discussion. At other times, the debate moderators themselves become part of the story and Lehrer is there to give us a backstage look at the drama. Peter Jennings suggests surprising the candidates by suspending the carefully negotiated rules minutes before the 1988 presidential debate to the consternation of his fellow panelists. Lehrer himself weathers a firestorm of criticism over his performance as moderator of the 2000 Bush Gore debate. And then there are the excruciating moments when audio lines go dead and TelePrompTers stay dark just seconds before going on the air live in front of a worldwide television audience of millions. Asked to sum up his experience as a participant in high level televised debates, President George H. W. Bush memorably likened them to an evening in Tension City. In Jim Lehrer s absorbing insider account, we find out that truer words were never spoken.

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