Non-fiction: Peril

Overview
Peril traces the fraught transition between the Trump and Biden administrations, focusing on the final months of 2020 and the opening weeks of 2021. The narrative centers on the contested 2020 election, the refusal by some actors to accept its outcome, the pressure exerted on officials to overturn results, and the violent eruption at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Through scene-driven reporting, the book presents a day-by-day account of decisions, conversations, and escalating tensions that shaped a pivotal period in modern American politics.
Co-authored by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, the book weaves together interviews with senior officials, telephone and email exchanges, private meetings, and contemporaneous notes. It moves between the perspectives of Donald Trump, Joe Biden, key White House staff, congressional leaders, intelligence officials, and military figures, creating a panoramic view of how institutions, personalities, and misinformation interacted during the transition.

Reporting and Sources
The reporting relies on hundreds of interviews, contemporaneous notes, and documents presented as the basis for reconstructed conversations and events. The authors attribute many of the granular details to direct sources inside both administrations and to those advising members of Congress. The narrative voice is rooted in traditional investigative journalism, prioritizing chronology and documented interactions to build its claims and to show how individual choices rippled outward.
Stylistically, the book alternates between descriptive passages and quoted dialogue to create a cinematic sense of immediacy. The dense reporting aims to reveal the behind-the-scenes mechanics of power: who picked up calls, who planned strategies, who resisted what, and how the institutional checks and balances were tested under strain.

Key Episodes and Characters
Several episodes anchor the narrative: the post-election pressure campaign to reverse results in swing states, the extraordinary pressure applied to Vice President Pence to block Electoral College certification, the buildup to the January 6 rally and the subsequent insurrection, and the final days of the Trump presidency as officials confronted potential national security and continuity risks. The book gives extended attention to conversations among senior advisers, the role of key allies and lawyers, and the moments when some officials pushed back against efforts they viewed as unlawful.
Central figures include President Trump and his inner circle, Vice President Pence and his staff, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional leaders, and members of the national security community who worried about continuity of command and safeguarding sensitive information. The narrative also follows Joe Biden and his transition team as they attempted to prepare for governance amid uncertainty and obstruction.

Themes and Implications
At its core, Peril interrogates the vulnerability of democratic norms and institutions when confronted with concentrated political will to subvert electoral outcomes. The title signals the authors' emphasis on the risks faced by the nation: damage to public trust, assaults on procedural norms, and the tangible dangers of chaos during a transfer of power. The book invites readers to consider how personal loyalty, misinformation, and institutional inertia combined to create a moment of acute national stress.
Beyond chronology, the book raises questions about accountability, the resilience of constitutional processes, and the responsibilities of officials who chose to resist or enable attempts to overturn results. It underscores the tension between presidential authority and the rule-bound mechanisms that underpin American governance, leaving readers with a portrait of a democratic system tested by extraordinary internal strains.