Hillary Clinton Has Co-written a Novel, and I Can’t Even

Earlier this year it was reported that Hillary Clinton was teaming up with bestselling author Louise Penny to write her first novel—a political thriller. I guess she felt she had a flair for fiction after pushing the phony “Trump colluded with Russia to steal the 2020 election” narrative.

But I digress. The political thriller, co-written by the twice-failed presidential candidate, is now just over a week from getting published, if you’re interested. It’s about a newly sworn-in secretary of state—the former rival of the elected president (sound familiar?)—who takes over for an administration “out of touch with international affairs, out of practice with diplomacy, and out of power in the places where it counts the most.” A bizarre and inaccurate dig at Trump, I’m sure.

Time magazine calls it “a heart-pounding mystery about terrorism, corruption and diplomacy, meticulously written with the promise of details only someone on the inside could contribute.”

American crime writer Karin Slaughter also lauded the novel, calling it “an absolutely gripping, utterly believable, heart-stopping thriller that will make readers question how much is fiction and how much is based on reality.”

Hillary is following in the footsteps of her husband, who has also dabbled with fiction in his collaborations with bestselling author James Patterson.

Here’s the book’s description from Amazon:

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.

It’s a hard pass for me. Maybe she’ll contribute to a sequel where the secretary of state runs for president again and hires a foreign agent to create a fake dossier on her opponent alleging collusion with an enemy state to steal the election.

Or would that be too close to reality?