To kill the President by Sam Bourne

"To kill the President" by Sam Bourne - Strong plot weak execution. 

This book is published by  HarperCollins in July 2017 and has 416 pages.

A volatile new President has taken office in USA backed by his strategist, Crawford McNamara. America comes to within 10 seconds of nuking North Korea and China as a retaliation to a provocative statement issued by Pyong Yang. Maggie, a white house staffer and trouble shooter for previous President, has decided to continue for current administration. Robert Cassian, Chief of staff, and Jim Bruton, Secretary of defense, are perplexed and powerless.

Does anyone have power to stop this freak President? Who can help them? What are their options? To kill the President? How's Maggie involved?

The new President is a white supremacist, has divisive policies, is unpredictable, volatile, is diabetic & overweight and has extremely low attention span and has won when no one expected him to win. He has a young married daughter and a young wife. Whenever he spoke on television it was either appalling or lie or both. 'Not my President' placards are everywhere. Sounds familiar?

Maggie Costello works in the office of Chief council. She was an expert trouble shooter for previous President and is in relationship with her colleague Richard. She unearths the plot to kill the President. She is torn between the two choices. Let the assassination happen and get the country rid of this tyrant and monster or save the President and democracy.

The story starts with a promise. It appears that execution of assassin is the real plot. But it isn't. Maggie's investigation and actions is the real plot.  Story is fast until the assassinating attempt but then becomes slower.  Sudden introduction of Rosemary helps to conclude the story. 

This book includes an entire talk show, a couple of news bulletins. Was it done to fill pages? The same could have been done with less pages. 

There are several weak spots in the story. How do they know that assassin will shoot the President in chest and not head? Why would Bob and Jim accept the position in new administration? The decision to kill the President appeared to have come very quickly.

They appear naive for someone to uncover plot.  Maggie's unearthing of pit is based on circumstantial evidence and deduction. No hard evidence. Final twist appears more like a fluke than plan.

Author has to be given credit for giving a Provocative title to the book. The cover with a gun in American flag colours is also a match to the title. This was my first Sam Bourne novel.

All said and done, the question of morality about killing a democratically elected President for greater good remains for the readers to decide. 

Why did I read this book?  Title and blurb.

What I didn't like? Execution. 

What did I like? Concept.

 Not a must read.