The First Lady – James Patterson and Brendan DuBois
Reading Time: 2 minutes
Last June, I read and reviewed ‘The President is Missing’, my first James Patterson book, almost entirely because It was co-authored by Bill Clinton. This time I am reviewing Patterson’s most recent novel, ‘The First Lady’, not because it is co-written with mystery/suspense author Brendan DuBois, but because of the book’s similar and topical subject matter.
The storyline is that shortly after a media ambush and resulting public disclosure of the POTUS having an affair, the FLOTUS goes missing. While sounding very straightforward, the plot has suffisent original twists to ensure that the book retains its intrigue all the way to the final chapter.
The story is presented from the perspectives of several key players, surprisingly not that of the President, but rather predominantly from that of the Secret Service agent leading the investigation into the First Lady’s disappearance, and from that of a hired assassin. This ensures that while the setting may be rather ‘blokey’ it is the female characters that are the strong characters.
Clearly, not written with the intention of highlighting and addressing any substantive issues, this book is a fast paced thriller, that does not devote anytime on character development or virtually anything outside of telling the story. While this ensures that it is not quality literature, it also ensures that it is a non-stop thriller.
This book’s many characters, and their (often cliched) names, initially made it difficult for me to readily identify them when they disappeared and reappeared – which occurred often in a book of 91 very brief chapters. For this reason, this may also be a book to be ready in fewer and longer sittings.
‘The First Lady’ is a guilty pleasure that provides easy and enjoyable reading, which while often cliched, is not offensive and consequently is as welcome as a Netflix thriller of a favourite genre.
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