A melodrama of the ERA, a thriller of murder, sex and politics in Richard Condon’s own inimitably baroque and satiric style, set in the political landscape of the women’s movement, The Entwining features a central figure unique in Condon’s work: a heroine who is a powerful political figure – and a poor little rich girl. Jean Spano is a beautiful young woman shaped by the dreams of her dead mother that dictate her life and therefore the lives of presidents and parties.

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A story of murder, ambition, sexual thralldom, and the working through of a woman’s destiny, The Entwining is, above all, the haunting story of the imposition of one woman’s will on the life of another. Born to riches and reared by her bachelor guardian, Jean grows to womanhood with her own translation of her mother’s designs. Weaving together strains of idealism and stridency, she gives herself to a feminism whose fervor is only surpassed by her own lust to achieve.

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Convinced that only natural political leadership will serve the cause of women’s equality with sufficient flamboyance, she embarks on a political career that will take her from a “macho” post as commissioner of legal matters for the NY Police Dept to and appointment as the nation’s first woman attorney general.

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But her ambitions also carry her to massive political corruption and a harrowing range of sexuality. When a sinister plot flowers, leading directly to two puzzling murders, the police, the FBI, the Secret Police, the President himself must discover what part Jean’s dreams have in this violence.

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This high-style thriller paints an unforgettable portrait of a driven woman who must solve the mysteries of her past and present before their secrets can topple her from the heights of the American political establishment.