Prompt: A book that has a heart, diamond, club, or spade on the cover

I had absolutely no idea what I was going to read for this prompt. I had preordered the new thriller by Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny, State of Terror, and when it arrived I decided that the cover was definitely diamond enough to tick off this prompt with a book I was going to be reading anyway – win win 😀

What it’s about?

State of Terror follows a novice Secretary of State who has joined the administration of her rival, a president inaugurated after four years of American leadership that shrank from the world stage. A series of terrorist attacks throws the global order into disarray, and the secretary is tasked with assembling a team to unravel the deadly conspiracy, a scheme carefully designed to take advantage of an American government dangerously out of touch and out of power in the places where it counts the most.

This high-stakes thriller of international intrigue features behind-the-scenes global drama informed by details only an insider could know.

What I think:

Ellen Adams is the new secretary of state trying to rebuild diplomatic relations and restore America’s standing in the world after a the damage caused by the previous administration.

Corruption, Russian influences and the release of terrorist leaders that will massively impact the stability of the Middle East – sound family? The allusion to current politics are pretty glaring.

Adams is fighting against a new President who doesn’t trust her and deeply embedded ideologies that have people with huge political influence working from within to estaish their vision for the future if America through lies and misinformation.

When a series of bombs explode across Europe it is oon clear that this is a coordinated attack of massive proportions. But who is being targeted and why is not clear.

Ellen has a limited amount of time to save America from a disastrous attack, and save her family who have been caught up in events.

This is a complex, high action thriller. There are a lot of characters and it’s not clear who can be trusted. Ellen spends a lot of time jetting around to secret and dangerous meetings with dangerous men. The only person she can trust is her longtime friend and assistant, Betsy.

This is a fun, high energy read that will keep you enthralled. It’s not the best thriller but it is readable and entertaining. It will be interesting to see, if they work together again, how the character of Ellen may develop in the future.