The President is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson

I have been curious about this for awhile but was not willing to rush out and purchase it when it was first published in 2018.  Finally it was put into large paperback edition in 2019 and when I saw it at Sam's and ready to read something else, I bought it.  I am glad I waited and had I not been so curious I could have easily passed this by.  It is at best a mediocre read, disappointing to me as I expected better with collaboration between James Patterson and Pres. Clinton.  I do not believe Bill Clinton should plan on a career writing crime/mystery/action novels if this is any indication of his ability to create in that genre.  

The 513 pages have some interesting moments but nothing especially compelling. The philosophic statements pages 500- 504 about how democracy needs  working together, across party lines, beyond political ideologies, to survive are applicable today.  

The presidency in this novel, has multiple  females including a female vice president, female chief of staff, and Speaker of the House, there is no first lady as the spouse is deceased. There is a first daughter however.  President Duncan suffers from a debilitating blood disorder wh ich has been kept from the public.  Page 15, "Sooner or later every president faces decisions in which the right choice is bad politics, at least in the short term.  If the stakes are high you have to do what you think is right and hope the political tide will turn.  It's the job you promised to do." President Duncan ponders as he  discusses with the chair of the House Judiciary committee whether or not impeachment will proceed. The President has information about a major terrorist and yet agrees to meet incognito with others without Secret Service protection at a ball park because his daughter has been contacted by the people.  There is a dangerous computer virus, Dark Ages that threatens the power grids and  all internet for the entire country.  President Duncan will  work to stop that and then it is determined that within his tightest circle in the White House  someone is a traitor and has been leaking information.    So it goes along. 

I rate this barely 3 ***, more like two & half but cannot display that.  Buy a used copy if you are curious as I was.    

Personal by Lee Child

Published 2014, acquired at a book sale 2018, read July 2019, 353 pages, and another Jack Reacher hit novel!  This novel finds  Jack pulled back from retirement by the State Department for the CIA, and off to London.  A sniper has missed a shot at the French President in Paris from 3/4 of a mile.  The suspected expert sniper is John Kott, an American gone to the dark side. Although a loner and preferring to work that way, Reacher is teamed with Casey Nice, a female rookie analyst on the international investigation.  

It begins, Chapter 1, " Eight days ago my life was an up and down affair.  Some of it good.  Some of it not so good.  Most of it uneventful.  Long slow periods of nothing much, with occasional bursts of something.  Like the army itself.  Which is how they found me.  You can leave the army but the army doesn't leave you.  Not always.  Not completely."  and the third paragraph, "The Army Times is a strange old paper.  It started up before World War Two and is still going strong, every week, full of yesterday's news and sundry how to articles, like the headline staring up at me right then:  New Rules!  Changes for Badges and Insignia?!  Plus Four More Uniform Changes on the Way!  Legend has it the news is yesterday's because it's copied secondhand from AP summaries, but if you read the words sideways you sometimes hear a real sardonic tone between the lines.  ..."  it begins with some interesting trivia, historical perspective.  Always something to learn in these Reacher novels.  Another example on Page 67,   "Pi times the radius squared.  I said. Very nearly 2 square miles."  "Average population density in major Western city centers?" Which was neither math nor arithmetic but general knowledge.  I said, "Forty thousand people per square mile?".."You're behind the times.  Closer to 50,000 now, plus or minus.  P{arts of Londond and Paris are already 70,000.  ....."  I wonder how much it has increased today, 2019 as city centers swell to over capacity.  

This sniper could be one of 3 internationally known and stopping him from wreaking  evil at the the upcoming summit of world leaders has engaged not only the US, but British and Russian experts.  Another great read, page turner.  I  have only one more Reacher book on my shelf to read from the book sale bonanza I found last year, so far 11 read and not all in chronological order of publish, so I will soon be ordering more on Amazon, I have kept track of the  Reacher novels I have read.  The chronology of publication is #1 Killing Floor 1997, #2 Die Trying 1998, , #4 Running Blind 2000, #9 One Shot 2005, #13 Gone Tomorrow 2009, #14 61 Hours 2010, #15 Worth Dying For 2010, #16 The Affair 2011, #17 A Wanted Man 2012, #14 Personal  2014, #22 The Midnight Line 2017.   As every other  this was a 5 *****