Imagine working at the National Archives. Your job is working with the most important documents of the U.S. Government. You have to be  the keeper of the stories and the treasures and secrets of history. But what happens when you become a part of the story and you happen to stumble across a secret that even you should not know.

The Darkest Secret .. of the us presidency…….. is about to be revealed!

This is what happens in The Inner Circle By Brad Meltzer. We find Beecher White, a young archivist doing his job and staying out of trouble, well that is  until we open this book and mess his world up.  Beecher meets his old childhood crush Clementine Kaye after years of not talking to her. She shows up at his job and ask for help to track down her father. Both of them living without a father figure and with Beecher still having his crush on her he tries to impress her by showing her one of the secret vaults where the President of the United States privately reviews classified document. CAN YOU SAY BAD IDEA! HELLO THE PRESIDENT READS HIS CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS PRIVATELY. This was a disaster waiting to happen.

While they are in the secret vault they accidentally comes  upon a two-hundred-year-old-dictionary that once belonged to George Washington that was hidden underneath a desk chair. (HELLO IT WAS HIDDEN FOR A REASON). Of course he have to read it right?  So he and Clementine read it, thus putting themselves in one of the biggest webs of  deception, conspiracy and murder ever! They say the truth will set you free, well in this case the truth can get you KILLED. They find themselves running from EVERYONE. Not knowing how far this goes up they don’t  even know who to trust anymore . The only thing Beecher is sure of is that he has to figure out what is in this book that is worth killing for? Thus he embarks on the mission of his life that will test his loyalty, bravery, and fortitude.  Oh SNAP, shit just got REAL!

HOLY SHITAKI MUSHROOMS.  Can you say roller coaster RIDE! Brad Meltzer had me reading this book all day and all night. I felt like I was in one of the National Treasure or the  Indiana Jones movies. This fast paced book was filled with some great historical details about the government that I found myself googling some of the things to see if it was actually true, it was so real. This novel was thrilling and a great page turner ( No pun intended) I loved his twist with the presidents having secret societies and groups it was great. I am definitely going to look for another Brad Meltzer book.

 4 out of 5 stars. Soto out!

Editor-Josh