From comments, more on the Proft/Pascoe brain trust in naming themselves after a character on House of Cards (which I have not seen)
Choosing the name “Urquhart” is interesting. In the first of the series, “House of Cards,” Francis Urquhart ends up murdering a young journalist, Mattie Storin, with whom he had an affair. Throughout the series, Urquhart routinely blackmails and frames his political enemies, and arranges murders of his opponents.
Urquhart’s murderous political games continue in “To Play the King” and the “Final Cut.” In none of the installments does Urquhart come close to being human, let alone someone to emulate.
Urquhart meets his end when his wife arranges to have him assassinated in order to avoid public revelation of his murderous past.
Anyone who has watched the series — and it is a great series — must wonder why a communications professional would want to be associated with Francis Urquhart — or FU as his confidants call him.
On the good side, no one appears smart enough in real life to successfully murder someone and get away with it.
It is excellent, rent it if you can. Just remember FU gets it in the end.
The books are even better than the miniseries. I bought mine in London–don’t know if they were ever published in the U.S.
Interestingly, the author, Michael Dobbs, killed off Urquhart at the end of the first book. The book was such a hit that he brought the character back for two more books–a point that both sequels conveniently overlooked.