The Best Laid Plans is a 1997 novel by Sidney Sheldon

Sidney Sheldon

Sidney Sheldon was an Academy Award-winning American writer. His TV works spanned a 20-year period during which he created The Patty Duke Show , I Dream of Jeannie and Hart to Hart , but he became most famous after he turned 50 and began writing best-selling novels such as Master of the Game ,...

. Possible inspiration for the title comes from a paraphrasing of the Robert Burns

Robert Burns

Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...

 poem "To a Mouse

To a Mouse

"To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough" is a Scots poem written by Robert Burns in 1785, and was included in the Kilmarnock volume...

" into modern English.

Plot summary

Oliver Russell, a man with a desire for power, is fated to rise to the highest office, that of President of the United States. Leslie Stewart, his betrayed fiancée, is a woman dedicated to the single purpose of bringing Oliver Russell to ruin. After amassing her own media empire and marshaling all her forces against him, she stands poised to destroy Russell on the eve of his most dazzling triumph. Thinking only of preventing Oliver from winning the Presidency for a second term, little does she know that she is about to fall into her own trap.

When Oliver returns from Paris married to Jan, Leslie vows to avenge him. However she keeps her thoughts concealed. This makes Todd Davis, Jan's father, introduce her to one of his friends, who owns a newspaper. A brief introduction followed by marriage sees Leslie man her husband's empire. With his falling health and subsequent death, Leslie becomes the sole owner of his properties. In spite of all the other businesses, Leslie takes an immense liking for the media empire, with which she intends to destroy Oliver. During this part, Dana Evans, who stars in Sheldon's other novel "Sky is Falling," appears as an inquisitive reporter who adopts a boy from war torn Sarajevo.

In the meantime, Oliver becomes the president, but during his first term there occur a series of deaths, all due to toxicity of Liquid Ecstasy, a dangerous aphrodisiac that Leslie connects to him. When she is convinced it is Oliver who is behind these murders, she goes on to publish the news of his arrest before it is confirmed. Dana Evans then unmasks the real culprit, while the president reveals a shocking secret.

The book ends with the proposal of a peace pact, brokered by President Russell, among the Arab nations, while Leslie is left wondering if she has gone a bit too far.

Characters

1) Oliver Russell (attorney-governor-President)

2) Leslie Stewart (once a fiancée of Oliver; an heir of many news agencies)

3) Jan (wife of Oliver Russell and daughter of Senator Todd Davis)

4) Senator Todd Davis (the one who finances Oliver Russell in his campaign)

5) Peter Tager (Oliver Russell's campaign manager)

6) Dana Evans (TV-news reporter for WTE)

7) Kemal (a twelve-year-orphan from Sarajevo whom Dana Evans adopts)