Presidential Deal propels building contractor/sleuth John Deal into the center of a national crisis -- the abduction of the First Lady -- and drives him to levels of heroism and ingenuity remarkable even for him. As Deal sits uncomfortably in a Miami hotel, preparing to accept an award whose notoriety he'd just as soon avoid, chaos erupts. Before Deal's eyes, terrorists interrupt the awards ceremony with machine-gun fire. As the assembled dignitaries fall under a shower of bullets, Deal grabs the ceremony's emcee, Linda Barnes Sheldon, wife of the President, and escapes. But Deal's spontaneous bravery plays into the hand of a suavely masterful madman, and he and the First Lady are taken captive. In a thrilling plot that unfolds against the backdrop of the storm-tossed Caribbean, Deal and Linda Sheldon must struggle to escape the clutches of their captor, a one-time U.S. operative in Central America who now harbors a deadly hatred for his former employers. At the same time, Vernon Driscoll, Deal's old friend and ex-Metro-Dade homicide detective, uncovers evidence of unthinkable treachery behind Deal's disappearance, evidence that points to the very highest levels of our government.