10 of the Best Political Thriller Books Ever

10 of the Best Political Thrillers Ever

When a former president writes a book, the world pays attention. When a former president writes a novel, it gets really interesting.

In collaboration with none other than James Patterson, one of the greatest thriller writers of all time, former President Bill Clinton has written 

The President is Missing

in which the President of the United States disappears, and sets the worlds in motion an unpredictable whirlwind of events. The book is full of details that only a president would know. and given the unique combination of an expert author and a man who knows everything inside (he had access to the NSA and CIA for years, after all), we couldn't be more excited. Here are ten more incredible political thrillers you want to read next.

See Also: The 10 Best Fiction Books of 2020

House of Cards, by Michael Dobbs

The book that inspired the UK TV show which in turn inspired Netflix's very first original series, this is the story of Francis Urquhart, Chief Whip, a cynical, manipulative politician determined to become prime minister . He's willing to use every secret he knows, every pressure point he can find, and every dirty trick in the book to secure his own rise to power - confirming just about every dark and terrible thing you thought you knew about politics. Dobbs drew on his extensive real-life experience in British politics for the books, and the result is an exciting vision of how extraordinarily violent government behind closed doors can be.

The Manchurian Candidate, by Richard Condon

Condon's 1959 novel, is a paranoid classic born at the beginning of the Cold War that continues to affect people today (the fact that Homeland has a similar concept is a testament to the evergreen type of device). Soldiers captured during the Korean War are tortured and brainwashed, and one, Shaw, is programmed to go into a hypnotic state when he sees his trigger: the queen of diamonds in a game of solitaire. He is programmed to forget his orders as soon as he regains consciousness, so he is the perfect hidden assassin who can stand any interrogation or test. His own ruthless, power-hungry mother is his KGB handler and passes orders to assassinate the president in order to secure the office for the vice president, who will order martial law and ask for emergency powers as a puppet of the Soviets . It's creepy, edgy, and still shockingly modern - and in a bizarre, realistic twist, some believe author Condon is subtly scribbled from Robert Graves' I, Claudius, number 8 on this list.

The Constant Gardener, by John le Carréle Carrénovels

You might think like a writer of spy, but politics encompasses espionage and crime as well as legislation and foreign policy. His novels are as much about the secret tension between rule and rule, and the crimes committed in the name of patriotism and realpolitik, as about deceit and moles. In The Constant Gardener, an inconspicuous man with a remarkable wife from a mediocre political career is shocked when his husband is murdered and decides to find out why and by whom. For the first time in his life, he is willing to take risks - and if there is one thing that the mysterious world of politics cannot stand, it is people who have nothing to lose. The end result is a perfect thriller.

The Day of the Jackal, by Frederick Forsyth

The Cold War politics of this classic thriller are long over, but Forsyth's novel (winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1972) still carries the power of a carefully researched story set in a very real world. . It is a novel of painful anticipation: first, as we follow the slow, careful preparations and planning of the titular Jackal hired to assassinate the President of France; then, as we follow the equally meticulous detective work of the man in charge of identifying the jackal when time runs out. The twin stories of detective and hitman remain separate until the jackal shoots, and it's this cat-and-mouse element between a cunning killer and a brilliant cop - plus the high stakes of global politics - that make this a book. that still resonates. Forsyth was working in Paris when he wrote it and used that first-hand knowledge to choose his environment. In fact, rumor has it that the killer's sniper site can still be located - with the precise rendering described in the text.

The Hunt for Red October, from Tom Clancy

Clancy's breakout novel is set at the height of the Cold War, but it remains a classic political thriller because it is a perfect combination of thrilling spycraft, deep-rooted action, and an insider's take on politics. behind closed doors. maneuvering and global deployment. Clancy's expert understanding of each of these aspects makes this story of a rogue Soviet submarine captain who plans to steal the experimental submarine he's assigned to and defect to the West - and the young CIA analyst, Jack Ryan, who desperately everyone tries to say of the president that this is not the Soviet Union starting World War III - but roughly the Platonic ideal of a political thriller. Rumor has it that Clancy's grasp of top-secret technology rattled the FBI enough that they paid him a visit, and anyone reading the book will believe it.

The Parallax View, by Loren Singer

Singer's 1970 novel, which was adapted into a film starring Warren Beatty turned cult favorite, is delightfully terrifying. A journalist witnesses the murder of a president and discovers years later that the other people who witnessed the event are mysteriously killed. His investigation leads him to the Parallax Corporation, which is training political hitmen as part of a massive conspiracy to control the world - a conspiracy that really reaches all the way to the top. The plot of the book is complex, but the sense that everything is not right with the world, that things are happening that are beyond our control or understanding, unfortunately applies just as it was then. Every time we lose faith in our leaders and harbor the idea that the country has been cheated on a national scale, this book must be pulled off the shelf and rediscovered.

Absolute Power, by David Baldacci

Baldacci's daring 1996 novel, centers on a tense moment when a professional thief who has broken into a billionaire's luxurious home encounters a mirror that gives him a glimpse of the billionaire's wife and the president of the United States are having an affair. The sex gets rough, and the detail of the president's secret service bursts in and kills the woman. The thief barely manages to escape, but the Secret Service pins the murder on him, and a game of cat and mouse ensues as the president and his team try to cover up the truth. Although conceived during the go-go Clinton years, this is another ever-green political thriller that blends thriller plot with a plausible take on what authority disconnected from responsibility could look like.

I, Claudius, by Robert Graves

A Historical Novel? True, but also a razor-sharp story of political maneuvering in ancient Rome involving not only murder and conspiracy, but influence, fake news, real policy and power brokers. Claudius, who survives the violent rule of his cousin Caligula because he is old and stammers - leading everyone to assume he is not a threat - is proclaimed emperor after Caligula's well-deserved murder and turns out to be smarter than anyone suspected. What makes this and its sequel, Claudius the God, so astonishing is that Claudius - despite his intelligence and desire to be a 'good' emperor with the ultimate goal of restoring the republic - is terribly flawed and constantly abuses its power in the most selfish of ways.

Lions of Lucerne, by Brad Thor

's first Scot Harvath novel, starts with a bang: Former Navy SEAL and current Secret Service agent Harvath oversees the president's security detail in Park City, Utah, when a brutal attack thirty kill other agents - and kidnap the president. Disgraced and confused, Harvath goes on a one-man mission to find out what happened and why, while the United States hesitates and hesitates to comply with the kidnappers' demands, resulting in a presidential finger pointing to the White House being sent. While it focuses a bit more on the thriller side of things, that's not to say Thor lacks a fine touch when it comes to the political side, which he portrays in an equally exciting way, leading to an explosive ending that you can't miss.

The Ghost Writer, from Robert Harris

The novel, is a masterclass in suspense. Former British Prime Minister Adam Lang is very late submitting his memoirs to his publisher - in part because his longtime associate and assistant died in a horrible accident. To get the book back on track, a professional ghostwriter is hired to complete the manuscript. The ghostwriter struggles to figure out what's true and what's not so true in Lang's Notes, and then comes across evidence suggesting the dead employee was actually murdered. While Lang is accused of war crimes, the stakes and tension continue to rise, and the ghostwriter - appropriately never mentioned - becomes entangled in the very nasty world of power and politics.