Around them revolves a superbly observed staff, a mixture of deep cynicism, muddled idealism and, in the person of Libby, a ghost from Stanton's past who is at once explosively funny and tragic, a compulsive seeker of the truth. Stanton is a brilliant portrait of a born politician, a man at once deeply calculating and genuinely spontaneous in his human reactions his wife, Susan, a smart lawyer, despises his louche sexual adventuring but is driven by her own demons. Henry Burton, the narrator, is a bright, youngish black man who rises quickly to a key position on the presidential primary campaign staff of Jack Stanton, governor of a small Southern state.

But while the mystery may help galvanize sales, it does not affect the quality of the book, which stands as a definitive political novel for these uneasy times-a novel that's knowing about the easy abuse of sincerity, the overblown role of the media (all reporters are ``scorps,'' short for scorpions), the readiness to confuse means with ends. On the other hand, the literary sophistication on display-the shaping of the story, the characterizations, the atmosphere, the dialogue-is so considerable it seems a professional writer must be at work.

All this has naturally led to the assumption that the author may be someone highly placed in Washington, possibly even within the Clinton Administration the intimate knowledge of Washington folkways the narrative exhibits seems to bear that out. A third party, independent of both the publisher and the author's agent, verified his (or her) credentials and oversaw the contract signing. We are assured that not even its publisher, Harold Evans, who signed the book, or its editor knows the identity of the author.

The circumstances behind this crackling, highly perceptive study of a presidential campaign that remarkably resembles Bill Clinton's are bizarre.

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