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Author | Bill Clinton & James Patterson |
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Language | English |
Genre | Crime, Mystery, Thriller |
Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf and Little, Brown & Co. [1] [2] |
Publication date | June 2, 2025 [1] |
ISBN | 978-0-316-565103 |
'The First Gentleman' is a 2025 political thriller written by James Patterson and Bill Clinton. It was published jointly by Little, Brown and Company and Alfred A. Knopf. and was released on June 2, 2025. [2] [1] It is the third thriller novel to written jointly by Patterson and Clinton. [3]
Former NFL star-turned-political spouse Cole Wright, the First Gentleman of the United States, is put on trial for a 17-year-old murder of a cheerleader just as his wife, President Madeline Wright, is facing reelection. The accusation threatens to derails Wright's political career and diminish her efforts to pass a vital economic package known as the "Grand Bargain." A pair of investigative journalists then race to uncover the truth about the case. The novel weaves together political intrigue, legal drama, and threats of assassination attempts as it explores the immense pressure on the First Couple.
Kirkus Reviews described The First Gentleman as "Carefully constructed, entertaining escapism with a political edge, and just the thing for beach or airplane reading," also noting that "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." [1] The New York Times also gave The First Gentleman positive reviews and in June 2025 ranked it among the books "Times readers are most excited about this summer." [4] [3] USA Today stated "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." [5] The Washington Post ranked The First Gentleman among the newspaper's 2025 "30 books to read this summer" list. [6] Lizz Schumer of People stated that "the new book promises all the "twists, turns and authenticity" from the co-authors' first two bestselling thrillers as a pair of investigative journalists set out to learn whether the NFL star-turned-political spouse is innocent or guilty." [7]