On the HahaFiction shelf

No Way to Treat a First Lady

First Lady Beth MacMann faces trial for killing her unfaithful husband, the president. She calls the country’s most notorious defense lawyer, Boyce Baylor, who also happens to be the boyfriend she abandoned in law school.

From the publisher’s blurb

“the boyfriend she jilted in law school—now the most shameless defense attorney in America”
Read the full description at Publisher description, Random House
Search on Amazon

Paid link · We earn commissions from qualifying Amazon purchases. Affiliate disclosure

What makes it funny?

The opening chapter treats Baylor’s billing rate as a historic barrier and his fourth divorce as a professional record. A national scandal takes up so much news space that war with Russia and China would struggle to reach the front page.

The comedy at work

Baylor anticipates the cameras outside his office as eagerly as the case itself. Buckley gives lawyers, politicians and television journalists competing reasons to turn a death into a career opportunity.

Try this if…

Washington scandal and celebrity trials supply the targets. The courtroom battle also gives two former lovers an opportunity to resume their old contest.

Good to know

Sexual scandal and adultery drive the setup, which includes explicit sexual description and the president’s death.

More funny contemporary & literary

Browse this genre

Sources & further reading

Something we should correct? Let us know.

Know a book that belongs here?

Authors, readers, enthusiastic friends. We’re all ears.

Suggest a book