what Clinton calls one of her nightmare scenarios while in Washington – an international terrorist plot involving nuclear weapons. The trouble in part originates in Afghanistan, where the previous administration of Trump-like President Eric Dunn has made a deal (as Trump did) that Adams sees as effectively giving the country back to the Taliban and raising the risk of terrorist activity.
“We did do the outline a year or so before the (2020) election. We didn’t know who was going to win. We didn’t know what was going to happen,” Clinton explained “Whoever was going to win – Trump, or I hoped, Biden – would be facing a fait accompli.”
The nearly 500-page novel combines other details that resonate with recent news – for instance, a chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who, like Gen. Mark Milley under Trump, challenges the civilian leadership – along with explorations of friendship; a cameo for Penny’s famed fictional investigator, Armand Gamache; and, for the writers, the enjoyment of placing women of a certain age at the heart of a political thriller.
