The Race

View other editions of The Race.
View books by Richard North Patterson.

Truly excellent - Rated
This book was so much better than I was expecting. I love American political thrillers, but have recently been a little disappointed with many of the recent examples on this genre. So, with great expectation, and some wariness, I tried this out.

It is, put simply, one of the best books I've ever read. I'm a PhD student, studying US politics, and I found that all of Patterson's arguments (from both sides of the political spectrum, though Republicans are the main party in this novel) were considered and eloquently put. Rarely did he ever make his more eccentric characters seem completely unlikely or ludicrous.

The pacing is superb, never allowing things to be dragged down by extraneous details. The novel is very lean as a result, and it's almost impossible to put this down (I kept reading until 3am to get it finished). I've since ordered his other political series, starring President Kilcannon (I think that's his name, anyway, it hasn't arrived from Amazon, yet).

I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in politics and also anyone interested in reading very high quality fiction. You won't regret it.