62 pages • 2-hour read
The President is Missing
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 1-Part 2, Chapter 23Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness, death, child death, and racism.
Part 1: “Thursday, May 10” - Part 2: “Friday, May 11”
Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary
President Jonathan Duncan is being questioned as part of a congressional hearing, the first step toward possible impeachment proceedings. He is questioned about an alleged phone call that he placed on April 29 to Suliman Cindoruk. Suliman is the head of a terrorist organization known as the Sons of Jihad, and it is controversial and confusing that Duncan spoke with him.
Duncan refuses to confirm or deny whether the conversation took place. He is then accused of interfering in a military strike against Suliman, which resulted in the latter escaping alive. No one can understand why “an American president [would] dispatch US forces to save the life of a terrorist” (13).
Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary
President Duncan becomes increasingly frustrated and angry; the narrative reveals that he is merely practicing testifying in preparation for an upcoming committee hearing. Most of his aides and advisors think it is a bad idea for him to testify, but he is determined to do so. Moreover, Duncan is distracted by an unnamed but more pressing concern.
Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary
An assassin named Bach arrives in Washington, DC, to kill an unnamed high-profile target.
Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary
President Duncan wakes up early; news outlets are buzzing about whether he should testify and whether there will be an impeachment trial. He meets with his chief of staff, Carolyn Brock. She urges him to take dramatic action to boost confidence in his leadership.
Part 2, Chapter 5 Summary
After the meeting, President Duncan confers with his doctor. He suffers from a bleeding disorder and is currently experiencing a severe flare-up, but he is reluctant to take any medication that might impede his ability to function. His doctor warns him that he is in danger of internal bleeding or a stroke.
Part 2, Chapter 6 Summary
In Berlin, Germany, Suliman plans a celebration for a group of men who have helped him. He looks ahead to an unnamed dramatic event on the horizon.
Part 2, Chapter 7 Summary
President Duncan meets with the speaker of the House, Lester Rhodes. Rhodes is very angry that Duncan won’t provide any information about the alleged conversation with Suliman. Duncan says that he is only withholding information because circumstances demand it; there is no political advantage to doing so, and in fact, Duncan is risking his credibility by refusing to explain what happened.
Duncan also provides some insight into the American intervention that allowed Suliman to escape: American forces knew that a Russian militia was going to kill Suliman. The goal was not to protect Suliman but to keep him alive: They know that a huge cyberattack is planned, and Suliman is the only person with the information necessary to stop it.
Having shared this information with Rhodes, Duncan pleads with him to call off the hearings. Rhodes is still not sure that he trusts Duncan, and he is unwilling to call off the hearings because he won’t be able to provide an explanation of why. Duncan is frustrated and angry.
Part 2, Chapter 8 Summary
President Duncan meets with a small group of trusted staff; he is planning something that they find troubling. They establish a code name for the situation: “Dark Ages.” Duncan reflects on his modest childhood upbringing and his past record of military service.
Part 2, Chapter 9 Summary
Bach meets with a contact in Washington as she prepares to carry out her assassination. The attack is planned for that evening.
Part 2, Chapter 10 Summary
At the White House, President Duncan is briefed on various geopolitical events. As he carries out various duties, he is abruptly summoned to the Situation Room and feels a sense of dread.
Part 2, Chapter 11 Summary
President Duncan is briefed on events in Yemen, where the leaders of two terrorist organizations are meeting. There is an opportunity to launch a missile strike on the location and kill both men, but one of them has brought his family, including young children, along. After significant hesitation, the president gives permission to strike.
Part 2, Chapter 12 Summary
The president has a significant meeting scheduled for five o’clock in the afternoon; no one except he and Carolyn knows about this meeting. It was arranged several days earlier and is somehow connected to the looming threat.
Part 2, Chapter 13 Summary
President Duncan meets with a young woman. She explains that she has access to information no one else knows, but she also has a partner who knows equally essential information. Duncan will be meeting with her partner that evening, and if he harms or detains her, he will lose the opportunity to get the remaining information. She leaves an envelope on the desk, and after the young woman leaves his office, he feels certain that her information is genuine.
Part 2, Chapter 14 Summary
President Duncan prepares to do something shocking: leave the White House without any security detail. His advisors and security are strongly opposed to this idea, but Duncan believes that he must take this risk to keep the US safe from the looming cyberattack. He leaves the White House through a secret underground tunnel.
Part 2, Chapter 15 Summary
An unremarkable car has been prepared for President Duncan; he gets in and drives away.
Part 2, Chapter 16 Summary
The president thinks back to meeting and falling in love with his late wife, Rachel, when they were both law students.
Part 2, Chapter 17 Summary
The president arrives at the home of actor Amanda Braidwood, a longtime friend.
Part 2, Chapter 18 Summary
Amanda uses hairstyling and make-up to help President Duncan modify his appearance. She assumes that Duncan is going on a date and reassures him that it is okay for him to explore new relationships after his wife’s death.
Part 2, Chapter 19 Summary
The president leaves Amanda’s home and drives to a busy downtown neighborhood. He is moved by an encounter with a veteran, who has a disability and is now unhoused and asking passersby for change. He also watches two police officers use excessive force when arresting a young Black man. Duncan reflects on the challenges that face American society.
Part 2, Chapter 20 Summary
President Duncan enters a bar, where he has arranged to meet his daughter, Lilly. Until recently, Lilly has been studying in Paris, France. On Monday (a few days earlier), a young woman named Nina contacted Lilly in Paris and instructed her to give Duncan the message about arranging a meeting. After Lilly passed along the mysterious message, Duncan rushed her back to the US. He confirms with her that he has met Nina and is now going to meet her partner. Lilly is concerned that her father is outside the White House without any security, but he reassures her.
Part 2, Chapter 21 Summary
The president leaves the bar and heads to a local stadium. The envelope that Nina left in his office contained a ticket to the baseball game taking place that evening. Duncan takes his seat, and after a short time, a young man approaches and sits down next to him.
Part 2, Chapter 22 Summary
Meanwhile, Bach takes her position on the rooftop of a nearby building and waits for her target. She is in the early stages of pregnancy.
Part 2, Chapter 23 Summary
The young man introduces himself as Augie and uses the correct code word (“Dark Ages”). President Duncan immediately begins pressuring Augie to share what he knows about the impending threat to the US. He then realizes that Augie has a handgun pointed at him.
Part 1-Part 2, Chapter 23 Analysis
Multiple narrative techniques appear in the novel; the chapters narrated from the point of view of President Duncan use first-person narration. This technique offers a strong emotional bond with the protagonist and also provides crucial access to Duncan’s inner world. The atmosphere of secrecy, tension, and duplicity as plot events unfold means that Duncan often cannot share openly what he is thinking and feeling with the other characters. The first-person narration offers crucial access to information that Duncan withholds from the characters around him because it is impossible to know who to trust. Other chapters are narrated in the third-person perspective, from the point of view of other characters, such as Bach and Suliman Cindoruk. These alternative points of view heighten tension and suspense by giving readers access to multiple events unfolding at the same time; they also create dramatic irony because readers have access to information that Duncan does not. For example, chapters from Bach’s perspective heighten tension because readers have access to information that a dangerous assassin is trailing Duncan and Augie.
Patterson is known for writing suspenseful, tightly paced thrillers and deploys multiple techniques to create an engaging reading experience in The President Is Missing. He makes use of short chapters that increase the pace of the storyline. Action unfolds in a linear, chronological narrative (although there is gradual exposition of events that took place before the primary action begins on May 10). The plot begins in medias res, with significant portions of the action already underway. For example, readers learn via exposition about the phone call with Suliman, which took place days earlier. Crucial details are only gradually revealed, and the precise threat is only hinted at. The author creates a tone of dread and impending doom before information about the cyberattack threatening the US is revealed. The narrative also sometimes deliberately presents information in a misleading way; for example, the first chapters of the novel are structured to give the impression that Duncan is already undergoing an impeachment hearing, and readers only learn later that the “interrogation” is a simulation intended to prepare him for what he could face.
The opening chapters also introduce and develop several key themes, including Misunderstandings and False Accusations Due to Limited Information. Duncan delays explaining why he contacted and then protected Suliman, even though his silence leads him to be misunderstood as disloyal. He explains to Speaker Rhodes, “I’m trying to do something that is incredibly difficult for the United States of America to do—fly under the radar” (56). The tense situation and the awareness that he doesn’t know who he can trust force Duncan to severely limit what he discloses and to whom, which in turn leads to his motives and actions frequently being misconstrued. The possibility of impeachment on grounds of treason alludes to Clinton’s own impeachment in 1998; Clinton was eventually acquitted, and the depiction of Duncan being misconstrued as disloyal while actually working to save the country hints that sitting presidents can readily be misunderstood.
Duncan embodies the theme of Leadership Requiring Controversial Decisions and frequently takes actions contrary to what others advise him. He chooses to keep Suliman alive and to leave the White House to meet Augie alone. These decisions develop his character as a courageous, solitary hero with strong gut instincts who is not afraid to defy others. At times, Duncan also makes challenging and morally ambiguous decisions that even he finds hard: After ordering a missile strike that he knows will result in the deaths of multiple children, Duncan “pray[s] for those children. [He] pray[s] that one day no president will have to make a decision like this” (81). While Duncan embodies many heroic tropes, he also acknowledges the weight of leadership and the moral compromises that inevitably accompany power.
Duncan’s decision to leave the White House in disguise and without any security reflects his willingness to take risky actions in pursuit of his goals, establishing fundamental aspects of his character. Because he is unrecognizable and lacks the trappings that would make him immediately identifiable, he is able to move through the world anonymously and observe details that he would ordinarily be shielded from. This experience reflects a literary trope present in works like A Christmas Carol, The Prince and the Pauper, and The Whipping Boy, in which a wealthy and powerful character assumes a more ordinary identity and gains a new perspective on the surrounding world (particularly the plight of more vulnerable individuals). While experiencing life as an “ordinary American,” Duncan is not surprised by the injustice and violence he witnesses, which shows that he is not out of touch. He is, however, unsettled and disheartened by the problems he sees facing American society. While Duncan is presented as a heroic figure determined to protect his country, he is also aware of the tensions and structural inequities embedded in the US.
Unlock all 62 pages of this Study Guide
Get in-depth, chapter-by-chapter summaries and analysis from our literary experts.
- Grasp challenging concepts with clear, comprehensive explanations
- Revisit key plot points and ideas without rereading the book
- Share impressive insights in classes and book clubs