State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny

 

"Given a choice between bedlam and a dictatorship, what do you think the American people will choose? Driven by fear of another attack, in a state of terror, they'll do the terrorists' work for them."

                 -Bashir Shah, from the novel

September 7, 2022

I am not sure which of our Page Turners suggested this novel---it could have been me. I had read a thriller co-written by Bill Clinton and James Patterson some time ago, so I was curious about this one co-authored by Hillary. Also, I know several of our group are fans of Louise Penny.

Ellen Adams has been appointed Secretary of State by a political rival, newly elected President Douglas Williams. No one quite understands the selection, but it turns out to be a smart move on his part.

A series of bombs are detonated, killing many innocents plus a few nuclear scientists letting the Williams' administration know they have an international incident on their hands. An intricate conspiracy is revealed bit by bit, involving Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Russia but also domestic terrorists, even HLI---high level informants---in the U.S. government.

I rated this novel a 3. It was a page turner at times but confusing in parts. I had no idea when I put this on our reading list how politically partisan---to put it nicely---the book was going to be. I can only hope our discussion can be civil.

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October 6, 2022

Page Turners met to discuss this September book----finally! Changes due to a health issue and Hurricane Ian! The ratings ran the gamut---from a few 5's down to a 1. The average was 3.4. People who liked the book enjoyed the suspense and those who gave lower ratings found it confusing and hard to believe in parts. I would guess those of us who vote a certain way liked it better than others. We agreed that it is frightening to think that some events in the book are not far from reality.