Clinton, Patterson again team up for new thriller

NEW YORK — After co-writing the bestselling 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 best-selling 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.”

Clinton and Patterson will give interviews for the book, although specific plans are undetermined, in part because of uncertainty about the endurance of the coronavirus pandemic. “The President’s Daughter” is not a sequel to “The President Is Missing,” but a stand-alone novel with new characters, albeit one with a familiar occupation.

“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.”

According to an excerpt from the novel being released next week along with a paperback edition of “The President Is Missing,” a motivation for the kidnappers is retaliation for U.S. drone strikes overseas against suspected foes. Drones have long been used for surveillance, but armed drones date back to the administration of Clinton’s successor, George W. Bush, and were expanded significantly under President Barack Obama.

KNOPF VIA AP, LEFT, AND AP PHOTO Left: The cover art for “The President’s Daughter,” the second novel by Bill Clinton and James Patterson, to be released in June 2021. Right: Former President Bill Clinton, right, and author James Patterson at a book signing for their first novel “The President is Missing” in Huntington, N.Y.