Clinton and Patterson again team up for political thriller

After co-writing the best-selling adult novel of 2018, Bill Clinton and James Patterson have teamed up for another political thriller.

“The President’s Daughter” will be released in June 2021, the book’s publishers announced Thursday. As with the million-selling “The President Is Missing,” the new novel will be a rare joint release by rival companies: Alfred A. Knopf, which has released Clinton’s “My

Life” among other works, and Little, Brown and Company, Patterson’s longtime publisher.

“I never imagined I’d be writing a book with a master storyteller like Jim, much less two,” Clinton said in a statement. “I was grateful for the success of the first book, and I believe readers will enjoy reading ‘The President’s Daughter’ as much as I’m enjoying working on it.”

Added Patterson, one of the world’s bestselling and most prolific authors: “Working with President Clinton has been a highlight of my career, and I’m thrilled to have the chance to write with him again.”

“It follows a former president of the United States, now relocated to rural New Hampshire, whose daughter is kidnapped,” the publishers announced. “Like their earlier book, the story will be told with Patterson’s

signature suspense and will be informed by details that only a president can know.”

The first book by Clinton and Patterson sold more than 3 million copies even as Clinton initially faced renewed questions in the #MeToo era over his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. “The President Is Missing” focused on a potentially devastating cyber attack, but also briefly referred to impeachment proceedings, a reminder of Clinton’s being impeached in 1998 after his relationship with Lewinsky was revealed.

The plot for “The President’s Daughter” would seem uncomfortable for Clinton, who has a daughter, Chelsea. “This novel is completely and fully fiction,” says Washington, D.C. attorney Robert Barnett, who handles book deals for Clinton and Patterson.

Photos and text from wire services Bebeto Matthews / Associated Press Former President Bill Clinton, left, and author James Patterson speak during an interview about their novel, “The President is Missing,” in New York.