THE PRESIDENT IS MISSING, Bill Clinton & James Patterson
This novel, The President is Missing was on the New York Times bestselling list for eight weeks. I debated about whether I should bother reading it as I am not usually a reader of “formula” mystery thrillers like those generally written by James Patterson. Then someone from my book club wanted to read Clinton’s book. She thought that something written by Clinton might be interesting.
Initially, I was disappointed as the novel started with many American political references about the president’s role with the legislature, speaker of the house and the senate. Indeed, if one does not have a knowledge of the American political system, this would be a difficult read. The setting is super American and one has to understand acronyms for television stations (CNN, CBS, NSNBC) American associations (NRA, UNC, DHS, NSA) and American politics to make sense of the action.
I am not sure what I expected with this novel, but I was looking for something special with respect to Clinton’s involvement. Unfortunately, I’m not sure I found it. Once I accepted that James Patterson probably did most of the writing, I could look at the novel as another episode of the popular Canadian TV series “Designated Survivor”. Subsequently, it became a quick, exciting mystery about political espionage. For those interested, it is likely to be a TV series and Clinton and Patterson have teamed up to write a sequel expected to be published in 2021. It’s a good beach read.
Heather S.
