BOOK REVIEW: STATE OF TERROR by Louise Penny and Hillary Clinton.

     Hillary Clinton has demonstrated yet another talent that Donald Trump can't claim; she wrote a book without a ghost writer. To be fair, she is credited with being a co-writer, her companion writer being a familiar name in political suspense novels, but we all know that Hillary can assemble a sentence effectively. I am pretty sure her name is not on the book as a publicity device. Besides the people who hate Hillary don't read much anyway, those who read would be more inclined to give her a good reception. I do not know how this book is being reviewed but it's a pretty good read. And clearly, Secretary Clinton was more than a passive contributor.
     The story is of a female Secretary of State who was appointed by a president that wanted to ruin her political future. We are not told why she is hated by her president, which I think is a plot weakness. After all, these kind of internecine battles are practically a cliche in thriller/fiction, as in real life. The new administration which the Secretary joins followed an administration filled with incompetence, starting with the former president and extending to every department. I honestly don't know where she got that plot device, I've never run into that particular plot before outside of political satire, which this is not. 
     A low-ranking Foreign Service Officer gets wind of an unspecified threat to be carried out in the very near future. It was some kind of code and none of the FSOs higher-ranking officers have taken it too seriously, until the first bomb goes off. This FSO goes to Foggy-Bottom to present the Secretary with what little she knows. It is here that we find out that the FSO and the Secretary's estranged son have a thing between them which the Secretary knows nothing about. Through some explosions on bus lines in foreign capitols we slowly become aware of a much deeper plot that these suicide attacks are meant to conceal. One of those busses contained the Secretary's estranged son who has been able to decode the message, linking it to two previous bus attacks and a third one on a bus carrying the son. He tries to stop the bus, but is considered crazy and thrown off the bus, thus saving him to help in solving the hidden plot behind the the revealed plot. 
     The story winds like a boa constricter in the Florida Everglades, through the usual foreign adversaries, NATO allies, and friendly nations who are secret enemies, but none of them seem to be the terminus of the plot, which now is known to be three dirty bombs in separate US cities. It also becomes apparent that the perpetrators of the plot are not the usual foreign adversaries. It is a gripping political thriller. Just when the reader begins to think they have deduced the plot, another element dashes their conclusion. 
     If I were to suppose myself capable of giving writerly advice, I would suggest that three bombs would be a little much. But I must remind myself that, while I was not ignorant of the extent of danger our former president presented then, and still presents today, I could not imagine the lengths his party would sink to in its quest for absolute power. So I will take a pass on determining what plot devices are too complex to be real. Hillary has followed her husband Bill in the political thriller genre in which he also has teamed up with accomplished authors. I have not read anyg of those books but I bet he is capable of some pretty good plot devices as well.

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