Book Review: The Best Laid Plans by Sidney Sheldon

"Everybody's got a little skeleton buried somewhere. All you have to do is dig it up, and you'll be surprised how glad they'll be to help you with whatever you need."

Sidney Sheldon was one of the many authors I read back in college during the eighties. 

In those days, Sheldon—along with the likes of Frederick Forsyth, Jack Higgins, Lawrence Sanders, Jeffrey Archer, Dick Francis, Alistair MacLean, Arthur Hailey, Len Deighton, Ken Follett, Desmond Bagley, Wilbur Smith, and even Harold Robbins and Irving Wallace—was known as a bestselling author.

I suppose they were known as bestselling authors not only because they were prolific, but also because their novels were often racy and regularly topped fiction charts, sold in the millions, and achieved mass-market success—I'd find their paperbacks everywhere, from bookstores to railway stations, and from footpath bookstalls to private circulating libraries. They had a certain global appeal. Many of their books were also adapted for the screen.

For the past forty years, I've been reading a handful of their novels every year, never quite sure if they hold up as well as they did back then. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't.

Most recently, I read The Best Laid Plans (1997), a fast-paced political thriller by American writer Sidney Sheldon, and quite enjoyed it; although, I found the ending rather abrupt and anticlimactic. It left me somewhat disappointed. There, I've given the game away already!

Still, The Best Laid Plans is a fast-paced political thriller that, for some reason, reminded me of Gore Vidal's 1967 novel Washington, D.C. Perhaps it's because both novels are about political morality, or more precisely, the lack of it. Power-hungry men willing to do whatever it takes to reach the highest office in the land.

Set in Lexington, Kentucky, The Best Laid Plans follows the lives of Leslie Stewart, a young, smart and ambitious PR executive, and Oliver Russell, a charismatic lawyer and down-on-his-luck political aspirant. Oliver hires Leslie's agency to revive his career and improve his chances of becoming governor of Kentucky. She is put in charge of his campaign, and predictably, the two fall in love and plan to marry.

That is, until Oliver dumps her just days before the wedding to marry the daughter of Senator Todd Davis, a political kingmaker whose influence and wealth help him win the Kentucky gubernatorial race. Davis then helps his son-in-law win the presidency as well, except for the fact that the senator has a secret agenda of his own—he intends to call the shots from the Oval Office.

Leslie is heartbroken, but not done with Oliver. She vows to destroy him. She marries a middle-aged business tycoon and philanthropist, originally from Kentucky but settled in Arizona. Leslie transforms her husband's local newspaper into a powerful media empire, and uses it to bring Oliver down.

But does she succeed? Well, you'll have to read the book, which, by the way, also has subplots involving mysterious deaths linked to the drug Ecstasy, corruption, personal vendetta and media spin, all of which trace back to Oliver's administration, and cover-ups.

The Best Laid Plans is classic Sidney Sheldon with its formula of power, betrayal and revenge, as we saw in his best-known work The Other Side of Midnight. The writing is crisp, the chapters short, there is plenty of dialogue, and just the right amount of suspense. All of this makes it entertaining, though the plot feels a bit rushed toward the end.

In short, a decent page-turner for the weekend.