Secrets of State by
Matthew Palmer is a spy thriller that has diplomats instead
of operatives. With Matthew venturing into the thriller writer
world, it became an all in the family affair since his late
father, Michael Palmer, and his brother Daniel also are authors.
While Michael Palmer concentrated on hospitals and doctors
to set the story, Matthew uses the world as a backdrop.
He commented, about his dad who was a best-selling author,
“I learned how to write a novel from my dad as we sat
around the dinner table. He would explain how to tell a story,
construct a character, shape a story arc, and keep readers
engaged. My brother and I learned from pop to create tension
by taking an ordinary person and putting them in extraordinary
circumstances. But it is hard to do that with the same guy
twice, which is why my brother and I write stand-alones instead
of a series.”
He went on to say, “My dad was tremendously helpful
and supportive. He got a huge kick from his kids writing.
One of the great tragedies is that he passed away before the
publication date of my first book. One of the most rewarding
days of my life was the debut of my first book, American Mission.
I walked into a Barnes & Noble and saw on the 'new-release'
shelf, my father's final book, my book, and my brother's book,
all lined up alphabetically alongside each other. This was
a great moment.”
As a State Department employee for the last 24 years that
included working in its think tank and at the National Security
Council he is able to use his experiences to write interesting
plots. In this stand-alone Sam Trainor, the former top South
Asia expert in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence
and Research, has found a job in the private sector. He now
works as an analyst for the consulting firm of Argus Systems
where he stumbles upon an intelligence anomaly. He realizes
that this transcript of a phone conversation about upending
the political balance between India and Pakistan is misinformation
that could cause an all out war between these nuclear countries.
Sam must race against a ticking clock and find the terrorists
who have stolen a Pakistani nuclear warhead to detonate in
Mumbai, India.
Although fiction, readers learn about the complex Indian caste
system between the elite and the slums. They are also exposed
to a modern day Machiavellian scenario: does the end justify
the means. The book has a quote from Stalin, “the death
of one person is a tragedy; the death of a hundred thousand
is a statistic.” The protagonist, Sam must answer the
question throughout the book, should one person be sacrificed
to save many?
The book also explores the affect of outsourcing America’s
national security to private corporations. The villains see
themselves as Patriots willing to do anything to keep America
safe. Viewing the US President as misguided and not willing
to make the hard choices they plan on stripping Pakistan of
its nuclear weapons by setting one off in India and creating
a new war. Palmer brings to the forefront the issue of how
secure are nuclear weapons in the hands of rogue nations.
What Palmer wants the reader to get out his books, “I
hope people see this threat and to think of the morality and
ethical issues including how far should we go to prevent terrorists
from gaining access to Pakistan’s nuclear program. I
also want to change how diplomats are viewed. Diplomats are
frustrated for getting the short end of the stick in popular
culture. We are never heroes and are cast as unsympathetic
bureaucrats. I hope Americans see that diplomats have gotten
a bum rap over the years. It is a dangerous job for the most
junior officer to the most senior. If you walk into the State
Department you will see on both sides of the wall engraved
names of US diplomats who lost their lives in the line of
duty. It is a long list.”
He also gave a heads up about his next book, The Wolf
of Sarajevo . Set in the Balkans, where Palmer spent
many years as a diplomat, the hero must try to figure out
who is pushing for a new conflict in the area and why.
His books do not have shootouts and the protagonist is not
a super hero. The plot is moved along more by the characters
words than their actions. The intrigue of Secrets of State
is the details of how diplomats must maneuver through international
and domestic politics, sometimes risking their own life in
doing so.
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