New Delhi: Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has teamed up with Canadian author and long-time friend Louise Penny to write an upcoming book titled State of Terror, which has been described as a “high stakes thriller of an international intrigue”.
The book is about a novice US Secretary of State who joins the administration of her rival, a president who takes over the White House after “four years of American leadership that shrank from the world stage”, a press release by publisher Simon and Schuster said.
Hillary Clinton isn’t the first in her family to write thrillers after retiring from office. Her husband and former US president Bill Clinton collaborated with Edgar Award-winning American author James Patterson to write The President is Missing, which also happens to be Bill Clinton’s first novel. It was published in 2018 and has sold over 3 million copies worldwide.
In State of Terror, the world is shaken by a series of terrorist attacks, sending the global order into disarray, and it’s up to the secretary of state to solve this conspiracy.
“Writing a thriller with Louise is a dream come true. I’ve relished every one of her books and their characters as well as her friendship. Now we’re joining our experiences to explore the complex world of high stakes diplomacy and treachery. All is not as it first appears,” Hillary Clinton was quoted in the publisher’s statement.
Clinton’s own experience as secretary of state and Penny’s penchant for mystery stories make State of Terror a much-awaited book.
The book will be published by Simon & Schuster and St. Martin’s Press in the US and Pan Macmillan worldwide. Simon and Schuster have published all the seven books that have been authored by Hillary Clinton so far.
Successful authors
Hillary Clinton had earlier signed a $14 million deal with Simon and Schuster for her memoir Hard Choices that came out in 2014. She published another memoir What Happened, about her experiences as the Democratic party presidential nominee in 2017, after the 2016 US presidential elections that she lost to Donald Trump. What Happened had sold 3 lakh copies within a week of publishing in the US.
Lousie Penny is a Canadian author best known for her Quebec-set mystery novels centered on the work of fictional character Francophone chief inspector Armand Gamache. An award-winning author, she is highly regarded for her thriller and mystery books.
Bill Clinton and Patterson are now collaborating on yet another novel, The President’s Daughter, which is set to be released in June 2021. It is about the kidnapping of the daughter of a former US president.
Also read: Elements inside Pakistan military had links to al-Qaeda — Obama on raid that killed Osama