Thrillers
First, a word about this category. This term has been used to describe detective fiction, espionage, and everything in between. I’m using it here to designate novels that are primarily plot-driven, with character, setting, and other elements of storytelling important only to the extent that they contribute to the building and maintaining of the suspense factor.
It must be said, though, that in the titles cited below you will find that the characters are exceptionally well developed. This is especially true of The Goldenacre. More on that below.
–The Northern Spy by Flynn Berry
Tessa will need all the strength she possesses to insure the safety not only of her small son Finn but herself as well. For they are living amidst the perilous uncertainty of Northern Ireland. Tessa works for the BBC and is trying desperately to remain above the noisy fray of partisan politics. But this leaves her with a narrow, treacherous path to navigate. Crucial decisions confront her at every turn.
Tessa has a sister Marian, to whom she’s very close. And Marian has secrets – dangerous secrets. So: Tessa, Finn, Marian…what’s to become of them?
In Northern Spy, we get equal measures of suspense, passion, and deep human feeling. This is an extremely wonderful novel.
(excerpted from a previous post)
—You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott
—The Bomb Maker by Thomas Perry:
Called by me, in a previous post, ‘quite possibly the most gripping thriller I’ve ever read.’ (I actually listened to the recorded book.)
–November Road by Lou Berney
It’s late November, 1963. We meet the following in quick succession:
A small town housewife and mother – think June Cleaver undermined by a restless streak (and a well-intentioned alcoholic husband). Throw in a small time hood and glad hander steeped in the ethos of the Big Easy. Then there’s a vicious mob boss and his highly unconventional enforcer.
It’s a combustible combination. And into its midst bursts an assassination that shakes the world. What has that got to do with this oddball cast of characters? More that you’d think….
This was an amazing read. Toward the end I got so tense and agitated, I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to race through the rest of the book or hide it under a stack of magazines – anything to avoid the conclusion I was dreading….
An outstanding thriller, on a par with The Bomb Maker. (excerpted from a previous post.)
—The Goldenacre by Philip Miller
The Goldenacre is many things at once: a thriller complete with a cunning plot and a twist at the end that I, for one, did not see coming; a terrific sense of place, that place being Edinburgh, a compelling cast of characters whose motives are not always obvious, and finally, writing that absolutely soars.
The title refers to a painting attributed to Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Here is how it is described:
“Mackintosh had painted a blaze of white sky, and, within that blaze,
something living and diaphanous. In the distance sat the black of the
Pentlands. They had been rendered as if they were not bare hills
stripped of their native trees but two giant legs and a mammoth body: a
distant giant cut from the landscape. The perspective of The Goldenacre
was unnerving: the field was both flat and three-dimensional, and the
height down to the foreground was precipitous. Throughout, the colours
were bold and watery, as rich as a passing reality, as sorrowful as a
dream departing upon waking.”
—The Last Trial by Scott Turow. Starting with Presumed Innocent in 1987, Scott Turow has produced one legal thriller after another. Each one has been distinguished by a consistently high standard regarding plotting and characters.
—Slow Horses by Mick Herron. In creating the Slow Horses (Slough House) series, Mick Herron has introduced something new and, I might add, vastly entertaining into the field of espionage fiction. These novels are the basis of a very successful television series starring Gary Oldman.
The following three authors are currently writing espionage novels in the tradition of the great John LeCarre:
—Small Boat of Great Sorrows and The Warlord’s Son by Dan Fesperman
—A Foreign Country by Charles Cumming
—The Matchmaker and The Coldest Warrior by Paul Vidich
The case of Paul Vidich is an especially interesting one. The events related in The Coldest Warrior are based on a true story, one to which this author has a personal connection. That story – a chilling one to be sure – is told in a six part docudrama by Errol Morris entitled Wormwood..
My post on this subject appears in a slightly edited form in the journal Mystery Readers International (Volume 37, Number 4. Winter 2021, Cold Case Mysteries.).
I’d be happy to go back and reread any one of these fine novels. That goes especially for The Goldenacre and Northern Spy.
Oh and Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope that where reading is concerned, you have a Thrilling New Year!
Books to the Ceiling