The case of the president
German, 2022, Marc Elsberg
Not in the mood for real US politics? Then read these thrillers
20.9.2024
Translation: machine translated
The USA is looking for its next president - or the first female president. The news is full of election campaign reports. As a contrasting programme, here are three thriller tips.
What will it be? An unscrupulous president who has to be elegantly eliminated by his employees? Or someone who single-handedly sees through a rogue state conspiracy against the USA? Or do you wish someone would put an ex-president behind bars for illegal actions by the US military? It's all there - in books. Three recommendations for thrillers in which the US president takes centre stage.
The president on trial
The plot: The ex-president of the USA is arrested during a visit to Greece on behalf of the International Criminal Court. Unsurprisingly, this causes huge diplomatic entanglements. In the middle of it all: lawyer Dana Marin. She has to represent the prosecution and has to deal with powerful opponents: secret services, PR networks, government advisors. Of course, the current US president also gets involved, who is in the middle of an election campaign and can't really afford to have the ex-president in prison in Greece awaiting trial.
The background: The plot is interesting: Imagine a former president actually being held accountable for orders to the US military that violate international agreements or even constitute a war crime. Marc Elsberg creates a scenario that remains fiction, but one wonders: why? A number of politicians have already been tried and sentenced for war crimes in The Hague. 124 states have officially recognised the International Criminal Court, but the United States has withdrawn its signature. To date, just over two dozen cases have been tried and sentenced in The Hague. Usually against people from African countries.
Good because ...: Marc Elsberg's thriller packs interesting background information about the International Criminal Court and international law into an exciting story. Sometimes the line between reality and fiction becomes blurred. What could really happen? What is made up? Elsberg leaves it up to you, the reader, to find the answer. You will move through the story less with the US president or his predecessor. Instead, Elsberg makes Dana Marin, a modern Joan of Arc, the main character, who herself was the victim of a war crime as a child and therefore fights for justice in a very credible way.
The president who comes from the CIA
The plot: In Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan series, former CIA agent Ryan has now made it to the White House. As President, he must prevent America's arch-enemy Russia from regaining its former Soviet power. Valery Volodin, a president in the Kremlin, has a perfidious and well thought-out plan to distract attention from the economic problems at home with aggressive foreign policy. If there are conflicts all over the world, this could drive up the price of oil and thus increase the wealth of the oligarch clique on which Volodin's well-being depends.
The background: The Russian president in "The Power of the President" is called Volodin. But I kept thinking of Putin while reading. The novel was published at the end of 2015. At that time, the real Russia had already annexed Crimea and infiltrated areas in the Donbass. But the scale of the major invasion in 2022 was not foreseeable. In "The Power of the President", author Mark Greaney, the former co-author of Clancy, who died in 2013, continues the Ryan series and shows how a Russia under the fictitious President Volonin is fuelling conflicts and causing problems for the democratic West as it struggles to find the right answers.
Good, because ...: With Clancy novels, it is always surprising, often frightening, how the plots become partly realistic scenarios a few years later. "The Power of the President" naturally exaggerates the role of a US president. The fact that only he recognises the big picture, while all the secret services don't get it - well. But I still think this Clancy is good. Because I'm getting to know a US president who is resolutely opposing military aggression by Russia in the Baltic states, while the rest of the Nato countries are still weighing up the options and hesitating.
The crazy president
The plot: The voters in the USA have made a terrible mistake. They have elected a man as president who, barely in office, is the first to order a nuclear strike against North Korea. The reason: a war of words with the ruler in Pyongyang has escalated. The employees in the White House realise that they have to stop this man, their president. With an assassination attempt if necessary.
The background: The novel shows the dilemma in which the main character finds himself. This is not the president, but Maggie Costello, who works in the office of the president's legal advisor. While Maggie is almost impossible to assign to a real person, it is very easy with the other characters. Sam Bourne makes it easy for readers to identify the president as Trump. Another important character is his close adviser Crawford McNamara, who is inspired by Steve Bannon and stands loyally by the president's side. Other characters, on the other hand, have to decide where they want to be seen in the story. Who is acting morally right? Is an assassination, ultimately a murder, permitted in order to prevent greater disaster?
Good, because ...: The US president is a choleric, easily irritated, sexist, quick to take offence, has little sense of diplomacy. He is the catalyst for the core issue around which the novel revolves. Jonathan Freedland, the British journalist behind the acronym Sam Bourne, published the novel in 2017, shortly after Trump's inauguration. The novel brings the feeling of that time back to life. You woke up early and the first thing you did was look at your smartphone to see if the real president had possibly done the unthinkable. Under Biden, you sleep more soundly today.
The author of "The President" knows how to provide deep insights into the psyche of his characters and the power structure in the White House. His conspiracy thriller is not always a breathless narrative, but the suspense holds up very well until the end. And I wasn't expecting this ending.
Do you have any book tips in which the US president plays a role? Or perhaps a novel in which a woman serves as US president? Let me and the Community know in a comment.
Header image: Martin Jungfer
Martin Jungfer
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Martin.Jungfer@digitecgalaxus.chJournalist since 1997. Stopovers in Franconia (or the Franken region), Lake Constance, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Zurich. Father since 2014. Expert in editorial organisation and motivation. Focus on sustainability, home office tools, beautiful things for the home, creative toys and sports equipment.