Eleanor and the Cold War

This mystery debut by a pseudonymous historical fiction writer puts former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt at the center of a Cold War murder. Asked by atomic scientist Elsa Meyer to find her missing daughter, Eleanor discovers that the young woman was murdered. Finding fault with a lazy police investigation, Eleanor, assisted by her temporary secretary Kay Thompson, sets about untangling the waitress-cum-spy’s last days. Mrs. Roosevelt draws on diplomatic connections, and Kay contributes the plucky street smarts of a working girl who navigates a decidedly male world. Even as her admiration for Eleanor grows, Kay never loses her focus on securing a husband, with candidates including a forthright police detective, a stern Russian defector, and a young congressman by the name of Kennedy. Peppered with references to familiar historical personalities from 1951 and cameos from both RFK and JFK, this is an easy read, but the plot is light, and the characters never really come to life; even those drawn from history lack depth.