Former President Bill Clinton and author James Patterson are releasing a new fiction book together, entitled The President Is Missing. It is described as a “thriller,” and officially goes on sale today. Clinton and Patterson made the rounds of interviews yesterday to promote the book.

The two did a full interview on CBS Sunday Morning.

It is interesting to note that Patterson has lent his name to several collaborative novels, though this is clearly the most high-profile of the bunch. After having read some of Patterson’s collaborations, it’s pretty clear that he allows first-time writers access to his editors and some professional polish before agreeing to put his name on the cover to sell the novel.

In this case, I’m not sure who benefits the most from having their name on the cover. Obviously, having Patterson’s name on the novel gives people the reassurance that this will be, at a minimum, a book correctly and professionally edited and reviewed. Having Bill Clinton’s name on the cover draws views and numbers. Obviously, Patterson is not getting Sunday news show interviews for a book release of his own.

Regardless, the book is being covered in the press, which led to some very interesting details….

“Readers may wonder why the authors decide early on to kill off the first lady, who was a brilliant law student when she first dazzled Duncan.” https://t.co/SQqTdX599d

— Amy Chozick (@amychozick) June 3, 2018

“Clinton has made sporting use of public loathing here, playing not only on readers’ voyeurism but on the chance to reinvent himself as a misunderstood hero.”

— Amy Chozick (@amychozick) June 3, 2018

Wait, how do we know this isn’t Bill’s personal fan fiction that just got published???

The American presidency comes with “thrilling highs” and “lows lower than a snake’s belly.” That’s what the fictitious President Jonathan Lincoln Duncan thinks to himself early in “The President Is Missing,” a thriller and escapist fairy tale co-written by Bill Clinton and James Patterson.

David Ellis is credited right up front as the person who “stuck with us through the research, our first and second outlines, and the many, many drafts,” so we know what he did: a lot. Otherwise, the former president appears to have provided inside information about how the job works when a president is paying attention (this novel’s POTUS reads his presidential daily briefing), done some speechifying and drawn upon his great love of thrillers. Patterson does what he does best: deliver cliffhanger endings to short chapters and make the story move.

Both of them seem determined to keep the shrill, bitter tone of real politics out of this fantasy. Sure, the words “impeachment” and “witch hunt” make cameo appearances. And Duncan’s vice president is a woman who thinks she deserved the nomination. Readers may wonder why the authors decide early on to kill off the first lady, who was a brilliant law student when she first dazzled Duncan, and why some of her last words were: “Promise me you’ll meet someone else, Jonathan. Promise me.” Let’s just call it a setup for the sequel and a dose of creative license. Duncan is also a Special Forces war hero who was waterboarded in Iraq and could have been a baseball star if his injuries hadn’t forced him into politics.

President Duncan is much too energetic to tackle all of this while sitting at his desk in the Oval Office. No, he needs to sneak out of the White House (see: title), and go visit his wife’s longtime best friend (a fabulous, gorgeous movie star — think sequel) to have her help him with a disguise. Then he can roam freely, just like the action hero all presidents ache to be.

The book also gives us an assassin who’s after Duncan, and who visits Ford’s Theater while she’s waiting to take her shot. Sorry, gentlemen. That’s really pushing it. And Duncan already has a wasting blood disease. He’s not going to get popped this early in the story.

But he does get many opportunities to show himself as a decent, well-intentioned person in a world very different from ours. He’s stable. America has allies. Those allies are treated steadfastly and courteously, because Duncan knows his real problems are much closer to home. There’s a traitor in the White House, and the president has gone AWOL, in part, to try to figure out who that is.

My God

— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) June 3, 2018

This was a Saturday Night Live running joke, and I can’t believe that it’s now a reality.

Seriously, does not one person in the entire creative process say, “Ummmm…. this sounds really bad”?

Sounds like Bill's wish fulfillment.

— K Hansen (@DrEvil63) June 4, 2018

And I’m not the only one who came up with the SNL connection.

SNL made it clear years ago such a plot twist would be possible if Bill ever wrote books or movies. pic.twitter.com/K16gybICRT

— Doug Powers (@ThePowersThatBe) June 4, 2018

Bill Clinton deserved so much more shame and exposure than he will ever get in this life. And now he is to be lauded as an “elder statesman” who gets to publish a “thriller” with a professional novelist that, incidentally, writes out one of the grossest fantasies that ever came out of the Clinton presidency?

Pass.