I didn't expect to like this, I'm not really interested in American politics and don't usually read thrillers, but I was lent it to help with a translation. Despite this, I enjoyed it. It's a fast read, shows believable aspects of American politics and it was interesting to see how difficult it would be to deal with a President who has lost the plot in a dangerous way.

Like the previous reviewer (Agade), I found the Socrates club very believable. ( )

A competent, entertaining political thriller with a strong central theme – power corrupts, and negative actions are negative regardless of intent. The ending is somewhat of a deus ex machina, and some of the characters are more cardboard archetypes than people in their own right, but I can more or less forgive that when a story flows well, which this one more or less manages.

Perhaps my favourite aspect of this is the description of the Socrates club; groups like this are usually depicted as shadowy secret societies with a semi-occult bent, which has never rung true to me. This book using a rich mans country club setting, with the important decisions made over golf, seems far more true to life than any of the usual conspiracy theories.

Rating: three stars. Good fun, reasonably well written, not too taxing. ( )

Fiction & Literature
-Novel, political