Yes, you heard right, Hillary and Louise (not Thelma and Louise) are going on the road together – at least the road to a new book that’s being billed as a thriller. STATE OF TERROR will be published in October of 2021. Here in the U.S. it will be a joint effort by St. Martin’s Press and Simon & Schuster. In the U.K. it will be published by Pan Macmillan.

Plot: A novice Secretary of State has joined the administration of her rival, a president inaugurated after four years of American leadership that shrank the U.S. from the world stage. A series of terrorist attacks throws the global order into disarray, and the Secretary is tasked with assembling a team to unravel the deadly conspiracy, a scheme carefully designed to take advantage of an American government dangerously out of touch and out of power in the places where it counts the most.

Louise Penny comments:

‘When it was suggested my friend Hillary and I write a political thriller together, I could not say yes fast enough,’ says Louise Penny. ‘What an incredible experience, to get inside the State Department. Inside the White House. Inside the mind of the Secretary of State as high stake crises explode. Before we started, we talked about her time as Secretary of State. What was her worst nightmare? State of Terror is the answer.’

And Hillary Rodham Clinton adds:

‘Writing a thriller with Louise is a dream come true. I’ve relished every one of her books and their characters, as well as her friendship. Now we’re joining our experiences to explore the complex world of high stakes diplomacy and treachery. All is not as it first appears.’

Personal comment: I’d be very leery of this project if it weren’t for Louise Penny and her top-notch writing skills. I may even give it a try.