BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Jim Lehrer's Tension City. 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.

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.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.

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Jim Lehrer's Tension City. 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...

Some bus drivers never meet a "white widow"--a wild card, a woman traveling alone who can change the course of a driver's life, and not always for the best. In this subtle, poignant novel, based on the true experiences of the anchor of PBS's News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Jack T. Oliver, who drives the Houston to Corpus Christi run for the Great Western Trailways bus line, is about to meet his.From Publishers WeeklyThis 10th novel from renowned anchorman Lehrer (The Last Debate; The Sooner Spy) trades journalism and Washington politics for the flat highways of 1950s Texas, where Jack T. "On Time" Oliver drives a Trailways bus between Houston and Corpus Christi-until his overactive imagination begins to shake his simple world apart. Lehrer fills this wistful tale with interesting details of bus line procedures and legends, the most central being the eponymous "White Widow," every bus driver's ultimate dream woman who comes aboard and changes his life. Jack is weeks away from receiving the honorary gold badge of the "master operator," recognizing his seniority and high level of service, when he meets his White Widow, a beautiful Ava Gardner look-alike who rides his bus on Fridays. Although they've exchanged only a few words, Jack begins to concoct love fantasies, losing his concentration as he longs for each Friday's run. His driving begins to suffer, and his wife suspects him of cheating. One stormy Friday, with "Ava" riding across from him in the "angel seat," the consequences of his obsession become dire and irreversible. Lehrer convincingly uses bus driver lore, drawing on memories of his college job as a ticket agent. His delicate portrayal of Jack's life and inner thoughts heightens the story's poignancy. With its tragic elements, simple narrative and strong undercurrent of myth, Lehrer's tale lingers in memory like a sorrowful ghost story. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalEvery week, Jack T. "On Time" Oliver drives his bus round trip from Houston to Corpus Christi and back. Now, in the late 1950s, he is about to receive his reward for faithful service, promotion to "master operator." He cherishes the uniform he wears and is proud of the slimness of his profile since he lost 70 pounds. He is married to the first and only woman he ever dated. Then a beautiful woman, a "white widow" in bus driver jargon, climbs aboard his bus one Friday, en route to the end of the line. In his thoughts, he names her "Ava," after actress Ava Gardner. Images of her confuse and obsess him; he dreams of a life he will never know. His distraction leads to disaster, exposing the fragility of his hold on happiness. PBS news anchor Lehrer (The Last Debate, LJ 8/95) has crafted an affecting story of a man who has anesthetized himself against the emptiness of his life but can do so no longer. Recommended for public libraries.?David Keymer, California State Univ., StanislausCopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In a riveting novel rooted in one of American history's great "what ifs," Jim Lehrer tells the story of two men haunted by the events leading up to John F. Kennedy's assassination. November 22, 1963. As Air Force One touches down in Dallas, ambitious young newspaper reporter Jack Gilmore races to get the scoop on preparations for President Kennedy's motorcade. Will the bubble top on the presidential limousine be up or down? Down, according to veteran Secret Service agent Van Walters. The decision to leave the top down and expose JFK to fire from above will weigh on Van's conscience for decades. But will it also change the course of history?Five years after the assassination, Jack gets an anguished phone call from Van's daughter Marti. Van Walters is ravaged by guilt, so convinced that his actions led to JFK's death that he has lost the will to live. In a desperate bid to deliver her father from his demons, Marti enlists Jack's help in a risky reenactment designed to prove once and for all what would have happened had the bubble top stayed in place on that grim November day.For Jack, it's a chance to break a once-in-a-lifetime story that could make his career. But for Van the stakes are even higher. The outcome of a ballistics test conducted on the grounds of a secluded estate in upstate New York might just save his life - or push him over the edge. A page-turning historical novel with the beating heart of a thriller, Top Down could only have sprung from the fertile imagination of Jim Lehrer. Drawing on his own experience as an eyewitness to the events described, one of America's most respected journalists has crafted an engrossing story out of the emotional aftershocks of a national tragedy.PRAISE FOR JIM LEHRER Super "Sheer delights . . . combines the rolling suspense of Murder on the Orient Express with the high jinks of [Lehrer's] lighter novels." - The Kansas City Star Oh, Johnny "A warmhearted evocation of the road not taken." - Kirkus Reviews Eureka"A nutty, likable romp [that] quickly takes on a deeper resonance that is certain to please readers . . . quite moving." - The Washington Post The Phony Marine "A story of emotional depth and unexpected twists of plot  . . . [Lehrer] delivers a convincing and compelling story." - The Oklahoman The Franklin Affair"A serious-minded yet breezy detective story . . . perfectly suited to beach reading and deep enough to raise lasting questions about life, liberty and the pursuit of historical accuracy." - The Miami Herald

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Jim Lehrer's Tension City. “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.