Book Review: Blowback by James Patterson and Brendan DuBois (2022)
Synopsis: After former Director of the CIA, Keegan Barrett, is elected President of the United States, he decides to attempt a power grab using two of his loyal CIA agents, Liam Grey and Noa Himmel. While they are sworn to carry out the president's orders, the agents find their loyalties tested as their orders are in direct violation of the United States Constitution.
Review: While I'm not a huge James Patterson fan (or really a fan of the spy thriller genre in general), I have at times read some of his books, mostly because they tend to be given to me as Christmas or birthday presents. In fact, the only reason I have Blowback in my library was because it was given to me on my 49th birthday last week.
Since it was a gift and because I was between books at the time anyway, I did give the book a read. Overall, while still not really my thing, it turned out to be decent.
I think the thing that stood out for me was it really wasn't all that farfetched which, in itself, is a bit scary. Barrett, at least in his mind, was making decisions he believed were best for the country even though they were also likely very illegal. This in turn made Grey and Himmel's apprehension to carrying out his orders all that more interesting, in part because President Barrett seemed perfectly OK with making them vanish and starting over with new agents if they didn't carry out his orders.
One thing I personally liked were the short chapters. I am one of those people who tends to lose interest when reading a longer book and my copy had more than 500 pages. The shorter chapters made it easier for me to avoid that because, if I found my mind wandering, I could just put a bookmark in after reading a few pages and be ready to start again on a new chapter. That also made a somewhat complex plot a little easier to follow along with, especially when it kept skipping to side stories relating to China and South Africa.
I thought the ending was decent as well. This was a story that could go a number of different ways, some better than others. The conclusion was somewhat clever and not overly predictable as could easily have been the case.
Final Opinion: It's still not my favorite genre but the book did give me a good change of pace and I didn't regret reading it. It's worth picking up if you're a James Patterson fan.
My Grade: A
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