First published 2022. Amazon paperback, 2022, pp 269, c.70,000 words. Fundamentally this book is a celebration of friendship, couched in an amiable thriller/who-done-it. It is the fourth ‘Jon Ball’ story and it concerns a woman who went missing, last seen at the Oxford University Press where she was cleaning up after a book-launch party. Jon […]
Under Pressure — Colwell Hopper Read More »
First published 2011. Atlantic Books paperback, 2011, pp 273, c.55,000 words. This book notoriously was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2011, the year that Stella Rimington, thriller writer and former head of MI5, declared that one of the criteria for the prize that year would be ‘readability’. Hurrah, who wants to read an unreadable
Snowdrops — A. D. Miller Read More »
First published 1956. Vintage paperback, 2013, pp272, c.85,000 words. This is a cracking thriller, and right in the mainstream of Innes’ work. As the title suggests, it’s a thriller focused on the sea, and few are as good as Innes in describing all its moods. Innes makes few concessions to those unfamiliar with boat jargon.
Wreck of the Mary Deare, The — Hammond Innes Read More »
First published 2020. Amazon paperback, 2020, pp 282, c.84,000 words. There is a cracking modern thriller here, but it is let down by the lack of editing. Did Ennew not bother to read it over, or get anyone else to, before uploading it to Amazon? Firstly there are the numerous typos, often glaringly obvious like
Good Morning Girl, The — Craig Ennew Read More »
First published 2022. Amazon paperback, 2022, pp 220, c.52,000 words. Straight forward thrillers are rare these days, so it was a real pleasure to come across this well written yarn. The basic form is out of the Shute/Innes/Bagley/Lyle/Kyle/etc. mould: take a competent but unexceptional man and place him in an extraordinary situation, then pile on
Small War — Colwell Hopper Read More »
First published 1966. Harper Collins paperback, 2017, pp 307, c. 101,000 words. This is a highly entertaining mid-twentieth century thriller. It has the usual protagonist of a man out of his element facing danger – in this case the man is a meteorologist, and the twin dangers he is facing are a hurricane and a
Wyatt’s Hurricane — Desmond Bagley Read More »
First published 1926. Pan paperback, 1982, pp 224, c.85,000 words. This was Shute’s first published book, and it shows him as an already accomplished story-teller and descriptive writer. Themes that reoccur in many of his novels appear here, notably the sea but also aircraft, both of which he knew a lot about. The woman in
Marazan — Nevil Shute Read More »
First published 1996. Bantam Press hardback, 1996, pp 447, c.160,000 words. Want a dose of conspiracy-plus-high-thrills entertainment? Suspend your nit-picker and enjoy. This is a fast-paced yarn with a large cast of characters, set in close to the real world of the post-cold-war period, where there are plenty who would like the conflict to go
Icon — Frederick Forsyth Read More »
First published 1988. Fontana paperback, 1989, pp 256, c.80,000 words. The first third of this classic Kyle thriller is top-notch: a great set-up in an interesting location with a plausible cast of characters. The reveals are nicely paced and the scene well sketched in. It seemed as though this was Kyle at his best. Unfortunately
Honey Ant, The — Duncan Kyle Read More »
First published 1972. Fontana paperback, 1981, pp 220, c.85,000 words. This is a classic, straight-forward thriller of the period. It follows Alistair Maclean’s formula of taking an ordinary man and placing him in an extraordinary situation, and then throwing everything but the kitchen sink at him, and once he has survived that, the plumber is
Flight into Fear — Duncan Kyle Read More »