State of Terror
A Novel
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4.2 • 418 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Named one of the most anticipated novels of the season by People, Associated Press, Time, Los Angeles Times, Parade, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Guardian, Publishers Weekly, and more.
From the #1 bestselling authors Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny comes a novel of unsurpassed thrills and incomparable insider expertise—State of Terror.
After a tumultuous period in American politics, a new administration has just been sworn in, and to everyone’s surprise the president chooses a political enemy for the vital position of secretary of state.
There is no love lost between the president of the United States and Ellen Adams, his new secretary of state. But it’s a canny move on the part of the president. With this appointment, he silences one of his harshest critics, since taking the job means Adams must step down as head of her multinational media conglomerate.
As the new president addresses Congress for the first time, with Secretary Adams in attendance, Anahita Dahir, a young foreign service officer (FSO) on the Pakistan desk at the State Department, receives a baffling text from an anonymous source.
Too late, she realizes the message was a hastily coded warning.
What begins as a series of apparent terrorist attacks is revealed to be the beginning of an international chess game involving the volatile and Byzantine politics of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran; the race to develop nuclear weapons in the region; the Russian mob; a burgeoning rogue terrorist organization; and an American government set back on its heels in the international arena.
As the horrifying scale of the threat becomes clear, Secretary Adams and her team realize it has been carefully planned to take advantage of four years of an American government out of touch with international affairs, out of practice with diplomacy, and out of power in the places where it counts the most.
To defeat such an intricate, carefully constructed conspiracy, it will take the skills of a unique team: a passionate young FSO; a dedicated journalist; and a smart, determined, but as yet untested new secretary of state.
State of Terror is a unique and utterly compelling international thriller cowritten by Hillary Rodham Clinton, the 67th secretary of state, and Louise Penny, a multiple award-winning #1 New York Times bestselling novelist.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Hillary Rodham Clinton, the ultimate Washington insider, brings a ton of explosively realistic context to her collaboration with best-selling mystery author Louise Penny. Their riveting political thriller kicks off with multiple terrorist attacks that throw the entire world into a state of panic. Clinton and Penny’s protagonist, newly appointed Secretary of State Ellen Adams, scrambles to keep the geopolitical storm from spiraling out of control—and to help protect the United States. Clinton—the former First Lady, senator, and secretary of state—peppers the proceedings with fascinating insights into how protocols are followed and how high-stakes deals are struck between political rivals. The interactions between Ellen and her closest confidant add depth to the story, providing a wonderfully relatable depiction of female friendship to boot. State of Terror is a thinking person’s thriller as well as an amazing peek into the highest levels of government.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rapid-fire plot twists are at the fore of this derivative thriller, set in an alternative 2021, from bestsellers Penny (the Inspector Gamache series) and Clinton (What Happened), making her fiction debut. Douglas Williams, who has become president following the defeat of his Trumpian predecessor, has named Ellen Adams, a media mogul who supported his opponents, as his secretary of state. After a disastrous mission Adams undertakes in South Korea, she soon has another, larger crisis to manage. Bus bombs in London, Paris, and Frankfurt kill dozens, but no individual or group claims responsibility for them, suggesting that the atrocities are a prologue to future attacks, possibly in the U.S. Adams travels to hostile terrain, including Teheran and Islamabad, in a desperate effort to avert a mega-terror event on U.S. soil. Though the cadences and humor of Penny's mysteries are present, they're not enough to compensate for a story line heavily dependent on contrivances and implausibilities. This is more likely to appeal to fans of Bill Clinton and James Patterson's The President's Daughter than the legion of readers devoted to Penny's Inspector Gamache novels. Agents: Bob Barnett, Williams & Connelly, and David Gernert, Gernert Company.
Customer Reviews
Great fictional story for our times
Reads well.
I just could not put it down
The story is fast paced, intriguing,with lots of plots and twists. It is the kind of book you keep on reading until 4 o’clock in the morning because it is that good
A roller-coaster of a ride
As a lifelong fan of Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Armand Gamache crime series, I couldn’t imagine what would be the result of her writing partnership with Hilary Clinton. The result?
An extraordinary compelling political thriller: I loved the seamless melding of the two authors’ experience and knowledge; the power and manipulations of the underestimated Secretary of State Ellen Adams; the central characters’ backstories; the at times humorous characterization of the former U.S. President (fiction or fact?); and the smooth transition to Three Pines, which provided relief from the relentless terror and threatened annihilation.
The plot is implausible. Or is it? An undercurrent flows throughout, begging the question: Are we all heading toward, or are we already in, a State of Terror?