Tag Archives: thriller

Sleep No More by Greg Iles

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Stephen King said “should come with a red wrapper marked DANGER: HIGH EXPLOSIVES” about Greg Iles book Sleep No More. People magazine said: “Irresistible Pass-the-popcorn fun.” And somewhere in the middle is the truth.

There are three different types of books – fun books without a lot of literary merit and intelligent books that are, often, dry as toast and books that fall in the middle- well written prose with characters that jump off the page. Iles isn’t a bad writer and Sleep No More isn’t a bad book- but it’s not literature. I read the book in a day and a half, but I had to suspend all disbelief to do it because the premise of this book is ridiculously silly.

John Waters lives in the south with his wife and young daughter. The blurb on the back of the book would have you believe that he’s got all his ducks in a row- happy marriage, successful business, but that isn’t true. His business (oil dilling) and his marriage (his wife has been depressed for four years after the loss of their second child) are both floundering making John the perfect candidate for an infidelity. So, he cheats. Only he cheats with someone from his past and things get slightly more complicated than he might have expected.

It’s impossible to say much more about the plot without giving away the book’s central conceit- the one you’ll have to suspend disbelief for. The book is filled with illicit couplings- though none of them are very titillating, so you won’t be getting your thrills that way. The characters aren’t particularly sympathetic and the whole thing tidies up just the teensiest bit unbelievably. Still, if you want to haul a book to the beach this summer, this will be reliably entertaining so long as you don’t expect too much.

The Lake by Richard Laymon

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This almost never happens to me. I couldn’t finish this book. It was CRAP…I mean, crap in the sense that it was poorly written, unbelievable and stupid…not crap in the sense of lots of fun– the sort of entertainment I generally read quickly in between books. Sort of a palate cleaner.

I bought it on the bargain table and paid very little for it…but 100 pages in I wish I’d saved my money.

So, I went looking for book reviews…and strangely, other people seemed to like it.

This totally absorbing crime thriller will have readers enthralled and unable to put it down until the last page is turned, says one review.

But when one of the characters is chased by a man wearing a chef’s hat carrying a cleaver turns out to be, in fact, a crazy chef her mother recently fired…well, you can see where I’m going with this.

I have no idea what happens…and I don’t care.

Save your money!

Darkness Bound by Larry Brooks

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Two strangers meet. A woman without inhibitions…a man without limits…for a private game between two consenting adults.

Yeah, so it’s obvious why I chose this book- but it didn’t turn out to be the book I expected. Instead of a book filled with kinky sex, this turned out to be a well-written crime story, filled with lots of twists and turns. Dillon Masters and his wife, Karen, separate. Dillon’s a stock broker with a penchant for kinky sex– something his wife doesn’t exactly share. So, when the mysterious woman of his dreams – a woman who seems to know all his dark desires– walks into his life, he can’t resist indulging in his fantasies. Turns out that this ‘Dark Lady’ is far more dangerous than Dillon had first giddily anticipated.

Lucky for the reader, though, Dillon’s no slouch– he’s able to more than hold his own with her and Darkness Bound turns out to be not so much a book about naughty sex, as a cat and mouse thriller where the players try to outmaneuver each other.

I read it in an afternoon and had a ball.

The Girls He Adored by Jonathan Nasaw

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Years ago I read the Dean Koontz book, Intensity. It was freakin’ terrifying. I generally find Koontz to be a pretty reliable writer, delivering fast-paced and exciting suspense, sometimes with a dash of the supernatural. (Of late I find him a little wordy, but never mind that.)

I was hoping Nasaw’s book would offer me the same thrill ride as Intensity, you know- one of those page-turners that you carry with you everywhere and can’t put down. The Girls He Adored is well-written (as these sorts of books often aren’t) and the potential for some serious suspense exists and the three main characters, Irene Cogan (psychiatrist), E.L. Pender (FBI) and Ulysses “Max” Maxwell  (total nutjob) are all interesting. But something is missing from this book.

Max has multiple personality disorder. He’s a violent killer who targets women with strawberry blonde hair. Pender has been on his trail for ten years, but it’s a difficult trail to follow because no one knows Max’s real name, plus he’s super intelligent. Then, by fluke, he gets caught and Dr. Cogan is assigned to see whether he is fit to stand trail. But Max is cunning and he escapes. And kidnaps Irene…and you can see where this is going.

If you’re interested in multiple personality disorder, you might find all the pycho-babble interesting. For me, when I read this sort of book,  I want to feel my heart race. I want to be afraid for the characters. And I wasn’t.