Q Clearance Author:Peter Benchley The author of Jaws, The Deep and The Island takes us into more treacherous waters-the bureaucracy of Washington DC, where our hero Timothy Burnham is a special assitant in the Department of Energy. On paper, that is; in reality, he is assigned to the White House as a speechwriter and never sets foot in the DOE. As the story opens he is informed ... more »by a DOE lackey that, because of his three years and six months time in grade, his rank has been increased one increment giving him a biweekly raise of $48.17 in take home pay and a Q clearance. The latter, explains the lackey, means Burnham is cleared for access to atomic energy paperwork. Thus begins a comedic but suspenseful adventure, complicated by Burnham's wife's anger over the suspicion that his raise rewarded meritorious service to the President, whom she despises. The adventure places Burnham in grim jeopardy at the hands of Soviet spies and White House insiders as he becomes known to the President, for the murkiest of reasons as the man who speaks "The Truth."« less