To Kill the President – Sam Bourne
A blockbuster thriller from No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author Sam Bourne, in which Maggie Costello uncovers an assassination plot to kill the tyrannical new president.
The unthinkable has happened…
The United States has elected a volatile demagogue as president, backed by his ruthless chief strategist, Crawford ‘Mac’ McNamara.
When a war of words with the North Korean regime spirals out of control and the President comes perilously close to launching a nuclear attack, it’s clear someone has to act, or the world will be reduced to ashes.
Soon Maggie Costello, a seasoned Washington operator and stubbornly principled, discovers an inside plot to kill the President – and faces the ultimate moral dilemma. Should she save the President and leave the free world at the mercy of an increasingly crazed would-be tyrant – or commit treason against her Commander in Chief and risk plunging the country into a civil war?
My thanks to Harper Collins for my review copy – received through Netgalley.
I don’t think there can ever have been a better timed political thriller. As I type we have President Trump threatening North Korea with “Fire and Fury”. As the world waits to see if someone gets an itchy trigger finger (and people plan to beg George RR Martin to tweet who ends up on that Throne if the 15 minute warning sounds) we have a work of fiction which reads like the newspapers.
To Kill The President opens with a 3am situation in the…well it is in the Situation Room…as the unnamed president demands that his staff launch a nuclear attack on North Korea. This fury has been prompted by a tweet the President has seen from the North Koreans which he believes to be a personal attack on his character.
The incident requires cool heads but that is not going to come from the Commander in Chief and someone will need to step up to save millions of lives. I shouldn’t refer to this as an “explosive” opening but it certainly grabbed my attention. As you read To Kill The President you are left in no doubt that you are looking at a mirror on reality, perhaps some events are marginally blurred and not a true reflection on the last 8 months, but it is hard to convince yourself this could not happen.
As the title suggests – an extreme option appears the only course of action left to save USA and the World but who would step up to take the life of their democratically elected leader? Who can be trusted? How could it be done quickly? What are the consequences of failure?
If you have even a passing interest in political thrillers then this is a great read. You don’t need to understand the inner workings of the US Political Machine to keep track of the players in this power game as the story flows with a surprisingly small central cast of characters. Perfect summer reading and truly a thriller for our times.
To Kill The President is published by Harper Collins and is available in paperback and digital format. Copies can be easily ordered through this link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kill-President-most-explosive-thriller-ebook/dp/B0167NVGQ0/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8