State of Terror, in which Hillary Clinton joins forces with Louise Penny, the grande dame of crime, is dizzying, addictive, and twisty, but what makes it wonderful—and liberating—is that it is a female fantasy thriller. For once, the saviours are an all-woman crew—not drop-dead gorgeous, but sassy and smart.
Ellen Adams—no prizes for guessing that she is secretary of state—is in her late fifties, a wearer of Spanx to hide her love for eclairs, of medium height, trim, elegant and blonde. In short, almost a clone of Clinton. Her tension with the president-elect Douglas Williams—who chose her despite her backing his rival for the Democratic party ticket—tightens the plot. The book was written in secret over several Zoom calls, and scanned documents sent back and forth.
State of Terror begins with a bang. Adams is flying back from a disastrous visit to South Korea. She arrives at the State of the Union address, very much in disgrace and far from elegant. What begins as a terrible day gets worse. Soon after midnight, a bomb is detonated in London and later, in many places across Europe. The scale of the operation is immense. Adams, with her partner in crime, her best friend Betsy Jameson—who is modelled after Clinton’s real-life best friend Betsy Ebeling—is racing against time to figure out where the next attack is going to be. And more important, who is behind it. Soon, it becomes a personal battle, too. Adams’s son, Gil Bahar—who escapes the clutches of the Pathan, a ruthless group that resembles the Haqqani network—is at the heart of this chase.
Set in the post-Trump world, the parallels with today are obvious. The previous president Eric Dunn, privately known as Eric the Dumb, is a thinly disguised and slightly more likable version of Donald Trump. He has set America on the same path though—withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, cosying up to Pakistan, walking out of the nuclear deal with Iran and, of course, bringing Russia into this dangerous cocktail. The book is a skilful blend of the real with the fictional and the plot, terrifyingly possible.
Mixed up in all this is a young foreign service officer, Anahita Dahir, who gets an anonymous text warning her of the blasts just before they happen. Moving from Iran to Pakistan and Russia, this thriller is as deeply satisfying as a dessert. There is plenty from the private life of the former secretary of state, and many sub-plots that keep you hooked. And for Penny fans, look out for the brief appearance of Armand Gamache.
This is not the first time that a Clinton has chosen to write fiction. Like with politics, Bill was here, too, before her. But with Penny, the book is more than just a thriller, it is a testament to friendship. It was Ebeling who brought Penny into Clinton’s life. “Hillary and I felt strongly that we wanted to reflect the profound female relationship we both have,” she writes. “That unshakeable bond of friendship. And we wanted Betsy to figure large.” Ebeling died of cancer in 2019.
What makes this book special is that it is about two middle-aged women saving the world with their superpower—their wits. (They are also fellow consumers of carbs, what could be better?) If it is a female fantasy thriller, it is equally a Clinton fantasy. She gets to speak her mind in the book, like to Dunne, the fictional Trump; the Russian president who is a Vladimir Putin copy; and the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Ali Awan. Along the lines of what she famously said at a news conference in 2011, “It is like that old story—you can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbours. Eventually those snakes are going to turn on whoever has them in the backyard.”
STATE OF TERROR
By Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny
Published by Pan Macmillian India
Price Rs650; Pages 494