The president is missing

when ??? wolfe noted that "the problem with fiction" is that "it has to be plausible," he may have had efforts like this one in mind. Bill Clinton and James Patterson's ambitious and wildly readable new novel, "The President Is Missing," arches more closely toward plausibility in its geopolitical subplots - threats against the Saudi king, malicious Russian meddling in world affairs - than its main story line of a president who ditches his handlers and goes rogue from the White House, convinced he is the only one who can foil a huge cyberterror plot. The book opens with a charged scene in which President Jonathan Duncan is participating in a mock hearing to prepare for a congressional inquiry investigating the botched attempt to capture a terrorist. When the president loses his temper, he vindicates the advisers who have cautioned him not to appear before the actual committee. It's a satisfying outcome for the former senior staffer in me - but unrealistic, considering the picture of the president that unfolds on the subsequent pages. Clinton and Patterson's fictional commander in chief brims with humanity, character and stoicism. He's a grieving widower - his last act before breaking free from his Secret Service protectors is to stare lovingly at a photo of his wife taken shortly before she died of cancer. The president's palpable ache for his first lady makes the reader wonder if the entire reckless adventure on which he embarks is, at least in part, a death wish. After kissing the photo, he enters the subterranean tunnels beneath the White House, emerges in an underground Treasury Department parking garage, gets behind the wheel of a sedan and drives himself first to the apartment of an old friend - who helps him with a disguise - and then to a Capitol Hill bar to meet his daughter. It's clear that both of them understand the gravity of the situation better than we do. Their words sound more like "goodbye" than "good luck." After this touching scene, Clinton and Patterson ask readers to take an even bigger leap - the president attends a baseball game alone to meet with an unvetted informant who has information about the coming cyberattack. The young man earns instant credibility with the president when the two are nearly gunned down. The chase scenes that ensue, replete with Secret Service shootouts, pre-positioned snipers (our first clue about an enemy deep within the president's inner circle) and a president who can still drive well enough to escape armed assassins (most presidents have rusty driving skills), are exciting enough, but their higher purpose is to introduce the novel's most intriguing character: Bach. Bach, so named for her devotion to the classical music constantly playing in her earbuds, is an assassin. Her inner monologue is more riveting than some of the novel's dialogue. When she lands at Reagan National she tells herself: "Look happy.... Happiness, they say, is the optimal emotion to project when under surveillance, the least likely to arouse suspicion. People who are smiling, who are content and pleased, if not laughing and joking, don't look like a threat." We learn of Bach: "She has killed on every continent. She has assassinated generals, activists, politicians and businessmen. She is known only by her gender and the classical-music composer she favors. And by her 100 percent kill rate." Game on. without divulging any of the satisfying plot twists - including just who Bach's target is - I can report that the novel unspools smoothly. Only in its final pages does it get bogged down with a few too many unsubtle messages about the current state of our politics, as in this presidential address to a joint session of Congress and the nation: "What does it mean to be an American today? It's a question that will answer itself if we get back to what's brought us this far: widening the circle of opportunity, deepening the meaning of freedom and strengthening bonds of community. Shrinking the definition of them and expanding the definition of us. Leaving no one behind, left out, looked down on." And this one: "Think about how different it would be if we reached beyond our base to represent a broader spectrum of opinions and interests. We'd learn to listen to one another more and defame one another less." These passages serve as a device to tie up loose ends, but they take away from the novel's greatest strength: It realistically depicts the selfless and often nameless people who work in government - and are willing to lose their lives - because they are compelled to serve their nation. It explores the thin line between loyalty and duty on one side and resentment and temptation on the other that can corrupt even the most honorable of public servants, and it shines a spotlight on the deep commitment of America's adversaries to tear us apart and weaken our standing in the world. ? Clinton and Patterson's fictional commander in chief brims with humanity, character and stoicism. NICOLLE Wallace is a journalist, author, NBC political analyst and the host of "Deadline: White House," airing weeknights at 4 p.m. E.S.T. on MSNBC.

Despite the blockbuster names, it's difficult to imagine a more unlikely pairing than Patterson, known for stripping away everything but the absolute essentials from his fiction, and Clinton, a gifted orator never known for keeping it short. And while Clinton is certainly not the first high-level politician to write fiction (or, if we count Donald Trump's Trump Tower, even the first president to receive a coauthor credit for a potboiler), the appearance of this high-profile, commercial thriller (jointly published by Knopf and Little, Brown), is certainly a landmark moment. But does it deserve a place on a shelf in Clinton's presidential library? Though the plot is convoluted, the premise is straightforward: a terrorist group, Sons of Jihad, led by one Suliman Cindoruk, is threatening to unleash a computer virus that could almost literally return the U.S. to the Dark Ages. President Jonathan Lincoln Duncan, battling the threat of impeachment, receives an offer to negotiate in person and, donning a disguise and shedding his security detail, meets a shadowy figure at a Washington Nationals baseball game, just before all hell breaks loose. Patterson ensures the plot purrs like a finely tuned machine, from the ticking clock of imminent disaster to suspenseful health complications (Duncan suffers from a blood disease that threatens to drop him at any moment), to an intrepid assassin completing the archetypal one last job. Clinton's input makes the executive experience plausible and effectively conveys the weight of the presidency, from diplomatic negotiations to Secret Service protocol, to mundane observations, such as, I haven't opened my own car door for a decade. Was there an unnamed co-conspirator on hand to do the actual typing? Well, that's classified, but there surely was a lot of typing, as this tops out at more than 500 pages of tense negotiations, firefights, chase scenes, and betrayals. (Do you really think the jihadists were the only ones behind it?) All must take responsibility for the prose, which includes such gems as, the mental gymnastics I have to perform while defending myself with one hand tied behind my back. Some readers may be disappointed that the premise inherent in the title is a bit of a head fake, and the battle-hardened Duncan doesn't really go off the grid to tangle with the bad guys mano a mano. But what does happen is ultimately more plausible. Comparing narrators to authors is a fool's errand, but when an ex-president is writing about a sitting president whose name is rhythmically similar in first-person, present-tense, no less it's also irresistible. The widowed Duncan (draw your own conclusions) is a former stud baseball player, a war hero (an Airborne Ranger in Desert Storm, he was captured and tortured), and a southern Democrat who is facing a real threat of impeachment by a powerful speaker of the house for a misunderstood but noble reason he can't disclose. Supporting characters constantly remind us of Duncan's courage, sparing him the hassle but, despite all that, he's just a regular guy at heart. Clinton doesn't help us steer clear of comparisons, for it's his voice we hear as the narrator whopops up time and again to justify his actions in the face of ignorant opposition, to opine on the state of the republic, to offer geopolitical lessons, and to remind us just how much he feels everyone's pain. Even after the dust has settled, the podium hound can't resist the opportunity for one last State of the Union speech. It's easy to imagine the high-level diplomatic negotiations as Patterson tries, with limited success, to keep his verbose partner in check. One of the half-dozen dedications is, To Hillary Clinton, who has lived with and worked against this threat and the consequences of unheeded warnings . . . . Is this book intended to be a real caution about a serious threat? If so, it's a curious vehicle, but perhaps appropriate to the time in which we live. Half thriller, half policy primer, this is a strangely compelling addition to Clinton's presidential papers.--Graff, Keir Copyright 2010 Booklist

Former president Clinton (My Life) and bestseller Patterson (The People vs. Alex Cross) deliver a page-turning thriller that rivals the best work of such genre titans as Brad Meltzer and Vince Flynn. President Jonathan Lincoln Duncan is un-der fire from the House Select Committee for allegedly ordering a team of Special Forces and CIA operatives to Algeria to thwart an attempt on the life of Turkish-born terrorist Suliman Cindoruk, leader of the Sons of Jihad. Hostile committee members repeatedly ask him questions about the raid that he refuses to answer. But Duncan's concerns about the out-come of congressional hearings into his actions are secondary to his fears that a computer virus is about to be activated that would completely cripple the United States. In order to avert that calamity, Duncan leaves the White House and his protective detail behind and attempts to gain the confidence of the shadowy figures who revealed the existence of the threat. The authors keep the suspense high as Duncan dodges bullets from a master assassin, deals with his deteriorating health from a blood clotting disorder, and strives to unmask a traitor among his inner circle of advisers. Fans of the TV series 24 and the movie Air Force One will be riveted. Agent: Bob Barnett, Williams & Connolly. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.