Timothy Neesam's Reviews > Inside Threat

** spoiler alert ** 3/5

U.S. Secret Service agent Eric Hill has been relegated to a desk job when the U.S. government comes under attack and the President and his wife are whisked to a Cold War bunker for safety in this fast-paced thriller. But is the President under attack, or is there an elaborate ruse that will provide a reason for the President to assume new powers? That’s the question Hill keeps asking as his protection team is trapped in the bunker and everyone, including the President, is a suspect.

This book gets solid reviews and while it had moments, I found it a bit of a slog. Hill’s world-weary ‘nobody really understands me but I can’t tell people the truth about a bunch of things I’ve done in the past’ worldview gets really old really fast. For such a great agent, Hill seems a bit thick sometimes, and I’m not sure how he fails to notice that the President wears body armour under his shirt. I’m also dumbfounded that when the President is shot, nobody prioritizes finding out if he’s dead or just wounded. But maybe that’s just me, nit-picking. When revealed, the main bad guy's motivations also felt a little over-the-top, as does his seething hate for the President (perhaps that's just the current state of American politics).

One of the characters, Cody, is a bright spot in the book. Trust is a significant component of this book, and we may have been better served to have her as the main character.