The First Gentleman: A Thriller

by James Patterson, Bill Clinton

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

There’s a killer at large and all eyes are looking to the White House. With unrelenting tension, political intrigue and insight into the presidency you can only get from a former commander-in-chief, The First Gentleman is a thrilling, action-packed ride.

Instant New York Times Bestseller!

“Bill Clinton reveals key White House details in murderous new political thriller… It's a twisty thriller with plenty of inside jobs, political sabotage and many, many deaths.” –USA Today

America has a powerful new president... And her husband's on trial for murder.
Clinton and Patterson are back. And they’re better than ever. 
The President of the United States is up for reelection. 
Her husband is on trial for murder.  
Is the First Gentleman a killer? 
A pair of brilliant investigative journalists set out to answer that burning question about the NFL star-turned-political spouse. 
The First Gentleman has all the twists and turns, and the authenticity, one expects from the #1 bestselling authors of The President Is Missing and The President’s Daughter.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316565110
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	06/02/2025
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	995 KB

About the Author

James Patterson is the most popular storyteller of our time. He is the creator of unforgettable characters and series, including Alex Cross, the Women’s Murder Club, Jane Smith, and Maximum Ride, and of breathtaking true stories about the Kennedys, John Lennon, and Tiger Woods, as well as our military heroes, police officers, and ER nurses. Patterson has coauthored #1 bestselling novels with Bill Clinton, Dolly Parton, and Michael Crichton. He has told the story of his own life in James Patterson by James Patterson and received an Edgar Award, ten Emmy Awards, the Literarian Award from the National Book Foundation, and the National Humanities Medal.
Bill Clinton was elected President of the United States in 1992, and he served until 2001. After leaving the White House, he established the Clinton Foundation, which helps improve global health, increase opportunity for girls and women, reduce childhood obesity and preventable diseases, create economic opportunity and growth, and address the effects of climate change. President Clinton is the author of a number of nonfiction works, including My Life, which was a #1 international bestseller, and the New York Times bestseller Citizen: My Life After the White House, published in 2024. With James Patterson, he is co-author of the #1 international bestselling novels The President Is Missing and the New York Times bestseller The President’s Daughter.

Hometown:

Palm Beach, Florida

Date of Birth:

March 22, 1947

Place of Birth:

Newburgh, New York

Education:

B.A., Manhattan College, 1969; M.A., Vanderbilt University, 1971

Website:

http://www.jamespatterson.com

Editorial Reviews

Bill Clinton reveals key White House details in murderous new political thriller… It's a twisty thriller with plenty of inside jobs, political sabotage and many, many deaths.”—USA Today

From the Publisher

The dream team…Clinton’s insider secrets and Patterson’s storytelling genius.”

#1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child

2025-06-03
The former president teams up again with the industrial-strength tale-spinner to deliver an action-packed mystery.

Cole Wright is in big trouble. Thanks to the dogged diggings of formerBoston Globe reporter Garrett Wilson and his partner, sometime lawyer Brea Cooke, the former New England Patriots tight end is on trial for murdering his cheerleader girlfriend 17 years earlier. Thing is, Cole is now married to Madeline Parson Wright, the president of the United States. Of them, Brea spits, “They’re not a couple—they’re a damn criminal enterprise.” Garrett and Brea are shopping a book in which they claim to have hard evidence that Cole Wright killed Suzanne Bonanno, but as they probe deeper into the story, things become murky: Mafiosi, a contract killer, FBI agents, overworked cops, a law professor with deep insight into Cole’s enemies, and sleek political operatives all wait their turn to complicate the tale. For all the tangled threads, Clinton and Patterson turn in a taut yarn that’s satisfyingly stuffed with red herrings, a neatly engineered conspiracy, and more than a few dead bodies. One is tempted, of course, to read between the lines: The first gentleman is, after all, married to the first woman president, and there’s a vast right-wing effort to stymie her efforts to forge a “Grand Bargain” that, among other things, is going to “increase the legal immigration quota by a million people per year for a decade,” raise the corporate tax rate to an ironclad 15%, and “bring back Al Gore’s Reinventing Government initiative from the 1990s.” Suffice it to say that the primary audience for the book is not the MAGA crowd.

Carefully constructed, entertaining escapism with a political edge, and just the thing for beach or airplane reading.

Kirkus Reviews