The midnight bell cover

The midnight bell

by Henry Patterson

"The new Sean Dillon novel, a knife-edge story of terrorism and revenge, by "the dean of intrigue novelists" (St. Louis Post-Dispatch). "The bell tolls at midnight as death requires it." In Washington, D.C., on a night full of rain, a woman is struck down and killed by a hit-and-run driver. But she is not just any woman--she is the assistant to the head of the secret White House department known only as the Basement. And she had secrets of her own. In the Virgin Islands, former president Jake Cazalet receives a warning. He is recuperating on a diving trip after successfully helping Sean Dillon and the rest of the "Prime Minister's private army" defeat an Al Qaeda operation in London. But though AQ may be weakened and facing competition from other terrorist upstarts, it is far from dead--and it intends to prove it. Soon the ripples from these two events will spread and overlap, not only in Washington but around the world. Everyone involved will find themselves in the most desperate battle of their lives--and the midnight bell will toll"--

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Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?