BAFAB Week: A Thrilling Thriller.
For Buy-A-Friend-A-Book I would like to know the title of your favourite (intelligent) thriller and tell me why it thrilled you in less than 250 words.Just post your response in the comment box below leaving a contact blog address. The prize will be the latest book by Robert Harris THE GHOST (published last Wednesday). The dead-line is Wednesday 31st October at midnight GMT.
Other BAFAB competitions:
Judy Thomas at WELCOME TO MY WORLD is holding a draw.
Karen at KAREN WRITES is holding a draw too.
And Marianne Arkins at READING, WRITING AND STUFF THAT MAKES ME CRAZY is holding a draw for an ebook.
Anne S at CAT POLITICS has a quiz...excellent idea.
posted by Clare Dudman at 5:09 pm
14 Comments:
I read a few thrillers long, long time ago though I can't remember anything about them or their names, but my favourite thrilled me because it was very exciting.
Well thank you, Andrew...such a shame you can't remember anything about them!
Dunno what I'd make of them now, &, horror of horrors, I might enjoy them, but there was one set in WW2 on the German occupied Channel Islands, I think. That should surely be enough to beat off all opposition.
That sounds good - I wonder what the title was - maybe a google search would yield an answer.
The most thrilling thriller I've read recently is James Patterson's Mary, Mary. It kept me guessing and that's normally hard to do.
btw, I'm adding your contest to my blog.
Thanks Judy, and thanks for your link - I've returned the compliment.
I’m not a great reader of thrillers though I read quite a few in my youth. My family regularly borrowed books by authors like Alistair MacLean and Hammond Innes from the library and as I was a pretty omnivorous reader then I got through quite a few of them.
These days I prefer more esoteric works of fiction like William Gibson’s wonderfully stylish techo thrillers. His latest novel, "Spook Country", is a fine example of this genre. It is not necessarily nail bitingly thrilling, but has a superbly sustained edginess generated by Gibson’s prose style. I liked the novel so much on first reading, that I read it again almost immediately afterwards.
By contrast, I read an execrable adventure thriller called “Temple” by Matthew Reilly. One of my work colleagues extolled its nailbiting qualities and loaned it to me. I was curious, so ploughed my way through it. It left me with no temptation to read any other of the author’s books. Reilly writes as if he were describing the action of a film – every extravagant twist of the plot is written in vivid detail, but his characters are two dimensional and generally quite loathesome. I found it extremely hard to maintain a willing suspension of disbelief. My inner literary snob turned up its nose from page one, but I doggedly persevered to the end.
Give me prose stylists over potboilers any day.
Oops, more than 100 words. I suppose I've disqualified myself.
No, Anne, that was just what I wanted - thank you! On second thoughts I think 100 words is too short so I am extending to 250 words.
I've decided to enter into the spirit of BAFAB, so have a book on offer at Cat Politics.
I am going to have to do that buy a friend a book thing. I like it.
Just been over - great idea, Anne...
Darn...I just missed the deadline!
Oh well, guess I can still tell you that my fave thriller to-date has to be Prophecy by Paul Mark Tag.
Not only could I not put it down (great hooks, plus subject matter intertwining techology and real-life historical events), but I loved the fact that the author is a former navy scientist, which lends credence to the plausibility of the plot. He has also actually been to almost all the locations described in the book.
There's something about that kind of "integrity" between an author and his writing that appeals to me...
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