MixedThe Sunday Times (UK)Peril has been written in haste and it shows. It is episodic, zigzagging back and forth across 72 chapters in an attempt to cover the first stretch of the Biden presidency as well as Trump’s final months in power. The urgent, staccato prose is effective but far from elegant. As in all the recent Trump books, Woodward and Costa’s account reveals the extent to which the former president was indulged by Republican politicians and aides who knew the election wasn’t stolen, but have enabled him to bamboozle his base and rewrite the history of the Capitol riot. It is not an original take, but important to know anyway ... Scoops are liberally sprinkled around, keeping the reader engaged...And there are some marvellous quotes.
Michael Wolff
PositiveThe Times...this portrait of a president \'under fire\' turns — almost despite itself — into a depiction of nailed down, armour-plated resilience ... filled with delicious gossip that is no less entertaining because it is of uncertain origin. Wolff no longer has a prize perch inside the White House...but he still seems to have almost unlimited access to verbatim remarks made by Trump ... Wolff has staked a lot of this book on one eye-catching scoop: the leak of legal advice commissioned by Mueller’s team on how to pursue a successful indictment against Trump for obstruction of justice ... The problem is that they no longer matter. Like a lot of journalists who have got their hands on something hot, Wolff is reluctant to admit this ... If it’s any consolation, and I strongly suspect it is, Trump’s durability is likely to provide Wolff with the material for yet another sequel...Wolff has found the perfect foil for his style of journalism. With Trump, accuracy doesn’t matter. Character is destiny.
