Review: Twisty and Gripping!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 1, 2014
The President’s Club is a twisty thriller, which will grab you and not let you go until the end. Here we follow John Hixon, now in private security after a career as a special agent, who is called in by a billionaire who is under threat. Hixon is understandably leery (he took a bullet last time he worked for Thibaut, in the novel preceding this one – The Tourist Killer), but he answers the call, and is drawn further and further into the world of The President’s Club – men who share presedential names, and who are really the power behind the power…F.C. Etier has a great style for thrillers – he writes in self-contained scenes, with jumps in time and place in between, and each works as its own set piece.  Apparently he had released this novel in instalments, and now they are bought together as a single novel – however it happened, it works really well. His prose is direct and vivid, with a “you are there” feel, and there are some terrific moments, including a detailed  flight in a huey helicopter, where you can fly vicariously through Hixon’s fascination with the helicopter and how it works.  The action scenes all have that sense – you are up close, and with the layers of what is actually going on slowly revealed, too, the novel feels cohesive and interesting. I’m not a huge conspiracy fan, so the involvement of real life people, places, and events actually pulls me away from the story not in (I like my thrillers full fictional), but conspiracy buffs will love Etier’s work!