Book Review: In the President's Secret Service by Ronald Kessler

In the President’s Secret Service, a new book about protecting our Commander in Chief, by Ronald Kessler, is a quick read full of interesting tidbits about past presidents’ quirks, preferences, and personality traits. Kessler also does a nice job explaining the history of the President’s security force and goes into great detail about past assassins’ attempts and breaches of security that the public never knew existed for our first family.
However, the book would flow much better if chapters were more chronological in nature and didn’t jump from the Kennedy administration to more dry, historical facts from the turn of the century. The reader will enjoy learning about Reagan’s dependency on his wife’s advice and the uncivilized antics of the Johnson years. Many embarrassing and very private scenarios are revealed about the Presidents and their families, but I’m not sure the public needed to know that Jimmy Carter treated the staff “disrespectfully” and lied about drinking alcohol in the White House. The public needs to understand that our leaders are human and have flaws like all of us. Enjoy In the President’s Secret Service for the rich history about the protective detail and the challenges it faces everyday on the job. -Kathy (Sunset)