Spud Rating System
√√√√ – Must See:
√√√ – Worth Seeing:
√√ – Take It Or Leave It, Unless You’re A Fan:
√ – Sucks.
I read a lot of books. Writers do that. And I have tried to read many different kinds of books over the years. But as time wears on the “Life’s too short” principle kicks in and you start to refine your reading habits. My tastes over the past decade or so have run very strongly to the modern day thriller. I don’t really have a preference regarding what kind of thriller it is. I’m an equal opportunity consumer of the genre, which ranges from one off stories by one hit wonder writers, to big city cop stories to rural cop stories, to political dramas to war and espionage. Whatever looks interesting.
Now this is still a pretty big hunk of the thriller genre, if not pretty much all of it with the exception of sci-fi thrillers and historical thrillers which are really more like mysteries. I’m not crazy about mysteries, although I do admire the people who take the time and go through all the mental acrobatics to put them together.
When you get into a genre like thrillers one of the best things that you find is that a lot of thriller writers develop characters and their body of work becomes essentially the arc of the character’s story. Writers who I read regularly and are particularly adept at this are Stephen J Cannell, David Baldacci, Michael Connelly, Stuart Woods, Stephen Hunter, Giles Blunt and Lee Child. Writers who don’t do this very much, if at all, are guys like John Grisham and Frederick Forsythe, but they are still great storytellers and that’s the hard core fact.
Three Mini Reviews.
Although I have written a review column for more than 10 years, I don’t really like reviewing stuff in too much detail. First of all if you do that you can’t help but give some of the story away. And while that may be OK for the Lord of The Rings something massive like that, it kinda takes the fun out of reading the thriller without any predisposition. The second reason is that in this day and age, you attention span is only so long. So I keep it short and sweet. You get my impression, at least enough of it, hopefully to form your own impression of whether you think it’s worth the time you have to invest in reading the book, and you don’t get the story regurgitated and spoiled. So that’s pretty cool.
Forty Words For Sorrow, The Delicate Storm, Blackfly Season, By The Time You Read This – Giles Blunt
These are the first 4 novels in the John Cardinal series by Giles Blunt, who originally hails from North Bay and lives here in Toronto by way of NYC. Mr Blunt is an outstanding Canadian writer and while his books border on mystery, I found them to be quite good thrillers in a quiet and elegant sort of way. The stories are set in the mythical Ontario city of Algonquin Bay, which is basically North Bay. John Cardinal is a police detective there and the stories follow the cases that he is working on. The day to day life of a small city police department is well depicted and the characters are all dyed in the wool Canadian. Mr Blunt also does a very good job of describing the relationship between local police, provincial police and the Mounties which I found very interesting.
His love Northern Ontario is pretty obvious and his descriptions of the area are almost poetic. But like all good thrillers, the story is the thing. And his stories are very well put together. These books are more character driven than action driven, but I found them quite refreshing and a lot less intellectual and navel gazing than most Canadian novels.
Worth Dying For — Lee Child √√√√
This in the 11th or 12th in a highly successful series by Lee Child, on of the best selling thriller writers in America. The hero is a retired MP named Jack Reacher who travels around the country getting into all kinds of trouble (read: righting all kinds of wrongs), armed only with a toothbrush and a debit card. These books are written with an incredible amount of precision pretty much from inside the military mind of Jack Reacher. Jack is an amazingly resourceful tactician and about as capable as any thriller character you’re likely to encounter. He can kill you seventeen different ways with a four in length of used dental floss. In a metaphorical sense, Jack Reacher is a hybrid symbol of Justice & Revenge. These stories ready very quickly and unfold with an astonishing precision and power. Lee Child is what’s known around these parts as an amazing talent.
Dead Zero – Stephen Hunter √√√√
This is the sixth or 7th novel in a series by Stephen Hunter, featuring the Swaggers, father Earl, a super soldier and military tactician, son Bob Lee who is knows a Bob The Nailer, a marine sniper, and another family member who is introduced in this book and who will, I suppose carry on in the family tradition of saving the United States from ruination by the forces of evil. The books in this series don’t adhere to chronological sequence, but t5he sum total of them tell a great American story, unfolding over seventy years or so. Mr Hunter’s knowledge of military matters, world politics, American history and weaponry are formidable and his characters are completely unforgettable.
If you are interested in any of these writers, feel free to visit their sites. Their books are pretty easy to come by at Chapters or Coles or wherever.
The Couch Potato Chronicles
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