Monthly Sub-Genre Challenge: What Type Are You? April 2018

Each month a randomly selected sub-genre of Mystery and Suspense will appear. We want you to discuss your favorite books and make recommendations. You may choose books to read in this sub-genre and post comments or reviews about the books read. Even a sentence or two will do!

The sub-genre for the month of April 2018 is...Political Intrigue

Political Intrigue is often a thriller in which the hero must ensure the stability of the government that employs him. Some well-known authors in this sub-genre include David Baldacci with his Will Robie series, Vince Flynn with his Mitch Rapp series and even, George R. R. Martin and his A Song of Fire and Ice series.

Political Intrigue can be a side-story in many genres besides “Thriller” – Fantasy (Game of Thrones), Science Fiction (Dune), Historical Fiction (The White Queen) even Contemporary Romance (The Senator’s Wife). In doing a search for “Popular Political Intrigue,” the most returned results were those in the YA/Teen sub-genre due to the current popularity of series such as Divergent, Red Queen, Legend and other teen favorites. The links below are primarily Thriller-based but feel free to include other genres that you also enjoy.

Following are some links to help you with selections for this sub-genre:

1. https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/political-intrigue
   
2. https://www.amazon.com/Spy-Stories-Tales-Intrigue-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=10493
   
3. https://therealbookspy.com/2017/02/19/ten-awesome-political-thrillers-to-check-o...
   
4. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/07/top-10-books-about-westminster-pol...
   
5. http://www.jeffersonflanders.com/2017/01/top-spy-thrillers-and-espionage-novels-...
   
6. https://strandmag.com/top-10-tales-political-intrigue/
   
7. https://theswamp.media/best-political-thriller-novels
   
8. http://crimereads.com/crooks-liars-and-spies-10-great-books-of-washington-intrig...

Happy Reading ❤

Love Political Intrigue books in thrillers, mysteries, fantasy and historical fiction books.

Will be reading Protect and Defend by Vince Flynn in April, love the Mitch Rapp books.

One of my favorite series - I love Mitch Rapp. Have you read any of the new ones by Kyle Mills? I am interested to see how those hold up to the original but, luckily, won't be until book 12

Hmmm, I did a tag search for what's on my tbr and came up with historical fiction! I'm not sure how often people use "political intrigue" as a tag, though, so I need to look a bit further.

Well, when I try using "political thriller" instead, I have three options. Will check closer to see if them might work. Two are John Grisham, so probably!

The Illegal / Lawrence Hill
The Chamber / John Grisham
The Testament / John Grisham

>5 LibraryCin: I loved The Testament. One of my favourite John Grisham books and different to so many of his courtroom Books.

>3 bhabeck: I’ve got 3 books to read before I get to the Kyle Mills ones, nervy about those as they are great books and a great series up to this point.

>5 LibraryCin: Check out David Baldacci's five series...The Camel Club, King & Maxwell, John Puller and Will Robie, and Amos Decker. Also Brad Metzler's Culper Ring series...there are only 3 books in that one. He also has some standalones that could be considered to fit this category.

>8 Carol420: I'm glad you mentioned Brad Metzler as I was looking at his books and trying to decide which one. I'm going to try The President's Shadow. I haven't read any of his before.

>9 gaylebutz: I have read a couple which I have really enjoyed.

>8 Carol420: Thanks, Carol. I'd be more like to try one of the stand-alones! :-)

The Chamber / John Grisham
3.5 stars

Adam Hall is a new lawyer. In Mississippi, Sam Cayhall, a (former) KKK member, is on death row for bombing a building in 1967 where a Jewish lawyer worked; the bomb went off when the lawyer’s 5-year old twin sons were there and both were killed. When Adam learns that Sam is his grandfather (Adam was only 3 when his father left Mississippi and changed all their names so as to not be associated with his own racist KKK father), he decides to head to Mississippi to fight the death sentence against Sam.

This was good, but maybe not quite as good as many of Grisham’s others. I think it was a bit slower. There were sort of two parts to it: the legal case being made and the pro/con death penalty, but also the story of a family with secrets, as Adam and Sam (and Adam and his aunt, Sam’s daughter) get to know each other. I thought about upping my rating just a little bit at the end, but decided I’d stick with how I felt through the majority of the book and go with 3.5 stars “good”.

The President's Shadow by Brad Meltzer
3.5 stars

Description
To most, it looks like Beecher White has an ordinary job as a young staffer with the National Archives in Washington, D.C. But few know his other role. Beecher is a member of the Culper Ring, a 200-year-old secret society founded by George Washington and charged with protecting the Presidency. Now the current occupant of the White House needs the Culper Ring's help. The alarming discovery of a buried arm in the Rose Garden has the President's team in a rightful panic. How did they get past White House security? And most important: What's the message hidden in the arm's closed fist? Beecher's investigation will take him back to one of our country's greatest secrets and point him toward the hidden truth about his family history.

This story had suspense and adventure with a lot happening in each chapter and most ending with a cliff-hanger or a surprise. This kept me reading. There was a sprinkling of historical information throughout, which was interesting. A few things were unclear to me in the end and a few things a bit far-fetched but overall an entertaining read.

The Inner Circle by Brad Meltzer
The Culper Ring series Book #1
3★

There are stories no one knows. Hidden stories. I love those stories. And since I work in the National Archives, I find those stories for a living.Beecher White, a young archivist, spends his days working with the most important documents of the U.S. government. He has always been the keeper of other people's stories, never a part of the story himself...Until now.

There were parts of this book that were so full of history and the secrets that our forefathers went to such great lengths to keep in order to preserve the fragile new democracy. It enables the reader to really feel that they are there and a part of the "inside information." In spite of that I crawled through the first few chapters and their seemingly useless chatter. Just when I was considering giving it up...things began to happen and I was once again drawn into the story and the characters. I find Wallace to be rather a waste as president...but that's more or less the way of government. It was fun to read about the underground caves in Pennsylvania where archival documents are stored, and other facts you don't get to hear about every day.