Bill Clinton and James Patterson's “The President Is Missing” Is A Solid Read (Really)

It’s almost an oxymoron to review a James Patterson book, as there is so many of them and they aren’t really books people review. However, this one is a bit different, because it’s co-authored by former president Bill Clinton. I put the book on request at the library, figuring how could I resist? I expect perhaps a standard James Patterson with a little insider knowledge thrown in by Clinton. However, with a gifted wordsmith like Clinton co-writing, Patterson too upped his game. It’s not to say the book doesn’t have the usual things that make a Patterson novel eyerolling, including chapters going back and fourth between first and third person, some cheesy dialogue and scenes are just too much like  action movies without any real value to the rest of the story. Patterson is one of the rare authors who is not quite as good as those who knocked off his style. However, I was surprised to find the book was a solid read.

                Now, I should put a warning before I even review the book. I like James Patterson. His books are utter addictive, no matter how ridiculous they might get. However, the guy writes solid mysteries and he’s a master at formatting. If you are bored at work, and you just don’t feel like trudging towards chapters, his two-page chapters will do the trick. Patterson and Clinton’s thriller are about a widowed president (don’t read into that), with a female vice president (don’t read into that either). However, the president who isn’t Clinton but is named Johnathan Duncan, who is literally a cross between Bill Clinton, John McCain and Jack Reacher. A president who isn’t super young, but younger than Clinton and has served in Iraq. When the book opens, he’s getting grilled by a Newt Gringrich type figure named Lester Rhodes. He wants to impeach the president. Once again, I’m already telling you to stop overthinking this novel even as I write this review.

                Yet, the reason he wants to impeach the president is because the president is trying to deal with a terrorist threat and tried to do so personally. As president Duncan tries to deal with both an opposing party senate and everything going on with the terrorist threat building against the country, he finds a source in a foreign woman who approached his daughter while she was vacationing. The foreign women and her boyfriend are warning President Duncan about a cyber threat that will be unleashed by a foreign power that will destroy all of America’s finances and defense systems. Through the book, little tidbits about insider knowledge are dropped about being president, including even stuff that reminds you why you don’t entirely hate the Clintons even if they can be problematic.

                As things build, the president goes rogue and is literally missing, as a bomb explodes at a baseball game. That’s when the James Patterson type action that feels almost like you are reading a movie sets in. The chapters are mostly the first person, but the Patterson tradition of going between first and third comes in. I usually find first and third person switch offs to be lazy writing. Awhile back I read a acclaimed British crime novel, and every other chapter was either a first or third person point of view. I just gave up on it because it got to be annoying. However, Patterson’s chapters are so short that you don’t really care. If you are reading a book to care a whole lot, you shouldn’t be reading a James Patterson novel.

                However, some of the writing feels like it lifts above the usual flat proses of a Patterson novel, and you may find yourself wondering who wrote this chapter, Patterson or Clinton? Things get good in this novel when the president realizes even as he’s dealing with the terrorists and there’s a traitor within his own inner circle. The twists and turns are illegitimately good. The thriller author Nelson DeMille once said he got a nice note from Clinton when he was president, praising his novels. Clinton was known even as president for loving mysteries and page turners. You can tell throughout this book that Clinton is relishing the whole experience just writing a straight up page turning novel, and the truth is he isn’t bad at all.

                I’m not going to say this is great literature, and for what it is, it’s a solid read. You might even have read it if it didn’t have the names Bill Clinton and James Patterson on the cover, and that’s a very good thing. Towards the end of the book, there is a chapter where the fictional president gives a speech, and it’s literally a Clinton speech. Oh, sure it starts out addressing the book’s events, and why the president needed to do what he needed to do. However, it goes into the usual Clinton agenda, which I don’t totally disagree with, but it seems kind of out of places in the book and goes on a couple pages too long without even a pause. However, I can’t say it’s bad. There are even moments that can be described as charming and have a genuine love for the better parts of America. Patterson and Clinton give a solid mystery with the president of the United States as an action hero in all around decent way. it’s a shame people won’t read it because they feel one way or the other about Clinton, because it’s not really such a bad read.