Having started this book thinking I would enjoy it, I found that it wasn't for me. I couldn't get into the book at all. I found the courtroom dialogue quite hard to take in and struggled greatly with it

A fun and fast-paced thriller. There’s been a lot of hype and excitement to this book coming out but I really enjoyed the ride. From the scene setting at the beginning, the novel builds to a crescendo (or two) of thrills and spills. If even a small percentage of the detail in this novel is true, then it’s mind-blowing. The terrorist threat and the work required to contain, control or react is one thing, but the everyday workings of the White House and the inner thoughts of the president are what really fascinated me.

Why this novel works now is it’s very timely. Couldn’t be more timely if it tried. Terrorist threats, secret operations, a president forced to answer the questions of their people, why he’s doing what he’s doing and how that will affect the country. Oh the list is endless and it will surely provoke reactions from people from all sides. Enjoying this purely as a fictional thriller, it’s unrelenting, politically and emotionally charged and danger lurks on every page.

Ther’s a LOT to this novel. Back stories for the president, timely occurrences in the Middle East and the threat of a terrorist group The Sons of Jihad. Scary since you’re never sure what’s real and what’s not.Not to mention the cyber attacks! This was launched at the London Book Fair this year with a look alike Donald Trump sitting in a mocked up Oval Office. Scarily realistic. And reading this took me right back to that moment.

Sometimes the level of detail and political dialogue can get overbearing and confusing but it rights itself and only sometimes gets in the way of the frenetic pace. There’s a lot of scene setting early on of course but once the novel gets going, there’s no holding back.

An interesting collaboration that I wasn’t sure if it would work. It does seem far fetched in places and would the president say everything he does in the novel? Nothing is certain in the novel or in the real world for that matter. Not even that title.

But the overall operation? An enjoyable, no holds barred thriller