From the publication of Where Are the Children? (1975; see separate entry), Clark has been notable for drawing characters in quick, incisive strokes; her skills in characterization seem to improve with each new publication, and in They All Ran After the President's Wife she peoples her plot with many characters who need to be drawn quickly but clearly. The pace of the plot does not allow for long character descriptions that would slow it down.

Thus there are missteps such as declaring that the ex-president is "a master pilot and checked out in the SST," stretching one's credulity way too far (the SST in question is an experimental aircraft never before flown); even so, most characterizations work well. For instance, Clark presents "Desmond Ogilvey, that monument of patience, the president most often compared to 'Cool' Calvin Coolidge," telling us what we most need to know about Ogilvey. Her brief...