High Citadel, by Desmond Bagley

Desmond Bagley is an almost forgetten English master thriller writer. But his books are still very well worth reading – elegant, extremely suspenseful, good characters and smart plots. High Citadel is one of his best.

A plane is forced down in the Andes. The survivors – a pilot, two businessmen, an ex-president, his bodyguard and his niece, a school teacher, and two academics – are forced to battle altitude sickness, freezing temperatures, and a band of Communist guerillas.

And as they try to organize their effort to improve their situation, we start to find out that the people involved are not what they say they are. Each has their own past. And, in addition, it soon becomes evident that the survivors have a traitor in their midst.

They manage to get down to a mining camp. There another bad surprise awaits them. What follows is tense, tightly scripted action. The party of survivors gets holed up on one side of a gorge, trying their best to holding off attackers with limited weapons and ammunition and a homemade crossbow. Their hopes rest on a small number who have volunteered to climb the other side of the mountain looking for help.

Every character in High Citadel plays an important role. The action is very tense, and the suspense is present all the time. This is one of Bagley’s best books, well written, exciting and a great read. It is highly recommended for all thriller fans.

The Bourne Deception, by Eric van Lustbader, Robert Ludlum

Robert Ludlum died in March 2001, but even so new Jason Bourne novels keep coming. I consider Robert Ludlum as one of the best thriller writers ever. And the Jason Bourne books were among his best. So somebody must have decided there was a market for Jason Bourne’s adventures even after Ludlum’s death. So now follow-ups are written by author Eric Van Lustbader. Lustbader has written 20 or so more or less best-selling novels, and should be able to take on this mission.

In this book a very highly placed American makes a deal with a Russian to have Bourne killed – once more. And in exchange for this, the Americans will kill a terrorist for the Russians (a bit of a shift from the old days, when the *Russians supposedly supported terrorists?) A Russian sniper, who turns out to be Leonid Arkadin (see The Bourne Sanction) finds Jason Bourne in Bali. He shoots him, hitting him square in the chest, but somehow the very severely hurt Bourne escapes and lives.

Then the canvas widens. A US airplane is shot down over Egypt. War hawks plot for an American invasion of Iran. A rouge American security outfit with extremely greedy owners meddles with intelligence reports and kills high ranking US Government officials. The American Secretary of Defense pushes for war to increase his own standing in the government.

The plot in The Bourne Deception is rich and past paced. And there is lots of action – almost too much, in the sense that it feels a little like sitting in a roller coaster train. The plot moves along, but its underpinnings are weak and strange, the logic that drives it a little artificial, and in the midst of it all Van Lustbader – who has a metaphysical leaning – throws in a little meta-physics (something Ludlum would never have done!).

I have to say I have read the follow-ups to Ludlum’s Jason Bourne novels by Eric van Lustbader with growing frustration. More and more I experience the books as overwhelmed by movie-like action descriptions as a substitute for intelligent plots and clever dynamics. The Bourne Deception I liked even less than the previous. To my mind, these books are now moving into a territory where only for the really diehard fans of the Jason Bourne saga will enjoy them.

Arctic Drift, by Clive Cussler & Dirk Cussler

Clive Cussler is a big bestselling author in the United States. He pretty much follows the formula of James Patterson – who seemingly runs a bestseller factory – and writes basically with short sentences, short paragraphs and short chapters. And, perhaps even more than is the case with Patterson, Clive Cussler fills his pages with techno-action.

In Arctic Drift, Clive Cussler and his son Dirk imagine the U.S. and Canada on the brink of war. This is their third collaborative novel (after Treasure of Khan
and Black Wind), and they have the formula for success down cold. Cussler has created a world where NUMA is real and where saving the world is mandatory and as easy as turning the next page.

Here, the price of gas hits $10 a gallon, and US President Garner Ward must contend with a corrupt Canadian cabal that’s subverting efforts to solve America’s energy problems. Pitt barely escapes serious injury when a bomb destroys a D.C. lab along with records of research into an artificial photosynthesis process that could, almost immediately, eliminate the threat of global warming.

But despair not – Dirk Pitt is on the case. It looks very bleak, and events do certainly seem to escalate out of control. But the Pitts manage to connect the dots, and eventually the greedy guys are defeated and peace reigns yet again. Till next time.

Thriller fans in search of a quick, exciting read should be satisfied. There is lots of breathtaking suspense and audacious imagination in Arctic Drift, as in all the books in the Pitt series. And, yes, it is entertaining. As it were.

Praise:

‘the action zipping along until a final powerhouse showdown’ (Entertainment Weekly).

‘What’s not to like?’ (Los Angeles Times)

The Dogs of War, by Frederick Forsyth

A few days ago I happened upon this classic thriller by Frederich Forsyth, originially published in 1974. It is a great book, very exciting and suspenseful. The plot in The Dogs of War is centered on a tycoon that discovers a mountain of platinum in the remote African republic of  Zangaro. This discovery causes Sir James Manson, a smooth and very ruthless tycoon, to hire an army of mercenaries to topple the government and replace its dictator with a puppet president. But the situation develops into a terrifying power game. And, of course, as Sunday Mirror wrote: “Enormous and convincing detail, and a shattering climax”.

In The Dogs of War, Forsyth clearly material of particular relevance at the time of writing. There were strong rumors at the time, and some evidence too, that with the right contacts and enough money, mercenaries specialized in coups d’etat could be hired to topple governments. Indeed, some rumors even implicated mr. Forsyth in such a plot! It is still not clear, I think, whether he was or not.

Regardless, The Dogs of War is a high quality thriller that still is very well worth reading. It is a book that shows why Frederich Forsyth made such a name for himself as a thriller writer. As you will see if you read the book, Forsyth was simply excellent when he was at his best. The Dogs of War is a must for any thriller-loving reader!

Corsair, by Clive Cussler and Jack Dubrul

This is the sixth novel in the Oregon Files series by Clive Cussler and co-authors. To my mind, this series seems to be written much in the fashion and style of the James Patterson thriller factory. That is, plot by Cussler, actual writing by Jack Du Brul. And with a similar recipe for success as well: Lots of action, a huge plot, pretty short chapters, preferably short paragraphs, and short, sweet sentences. It seems to work – both Cussler and Peterson write books that are bestsellers in the US.

In Corsair, Juan Cabrillo, the Corporation, and the Oregon are at it again. The Oregon is a vessel that viewed from the outside appears to be old, somewhat in disrepair and weak, but which in reality is heavily armored and full of sophisticated equipment and powerful weaponry. And the technology plays a significant role in the book.

It starts with a prologue set during the Barbary pirate war and a tale of a pirate fortune. It continues with the Oregon raiding a modern day pirate stronghold in order to capture a pirate leader out of a heavily defended port.

But the real action in Corsair, its main storyline, starts when the United States’ Secretary of State’s plane crashes under mysterious circumstances on the way to Libya. And the action is fast, furious and impressive. It is quite interesting and entertaining. Even though you really have let go of logic and go with the flow of the book pretty often in order to fully enjoy. But if you can do that, than this book is very entertaining.

Du Brul and Cussler weave great although sometime pretty wild plotlines, and they are good at mixing in “facts” in lots of shapes and forms – history, religion, and politics. To me, the plot was moderately or so engaging. And at some spots, even in this adventure filled action novel, things were a little too slow and the side stories a tad boring. But even so, Corsair is an above-average adventure story, and quite ok for a relaxing reading of a technological adventure.

Nothing to Lose, by Lee Child

It was a coincidence that I picked up this book. I was at the library to pick up some books. While I was waiting, I saw it lying there. So I picked it up. Looked at it and borrowed it. And later I read all the other books I had waiting for me. Finally I started on Lee Child’s book with the boring cover.

And reading it, at first I thought it was simply odd. A lone hero walking into trouble for no apparent reason other than his stubbornness. Walking from the strange city of Hope into the even stranger city of Destiny. It all seemed odd to. Simply.

But I continued to read, curious as I am. And gradually the book grew on me. Partly because I wanted to find out what was going on – thinking there had to be something more. Partly because this represented to me a kind of new genre of thriller. A bare bones, no frills thriller if you want. No spying, no agents, no super duper huge or advanced or whatever organization. Just a guy. And, admittedly, a somewhat strange guy. Named Jack Reacher.

Later I have read up on the book, the author and the series. I have noted that a book reviewer in New York Times, Janet Maslin, calls Jack Reacher a “minimalist character”. I think that is an apt description. He is minimalist. The thriller is minimalist!

But Child’s Reacher is actually, when you get to know him, an utterly addictive hero. He is a 6 feet 5 inches ex-military cop that excels in unarmed combat, and he is as cool as a cucumber. He may get a little worried when he is up against six guys in a bar, and start to ponder their combined body weight relative to his and such things. But he delivers the goods. And, as well, his powers of deduction are second to none and a joy to observe!

So, yeah, I liked this guy. I liked the way Reacher dealt with power abuse, crime and corruption. And I liked the way he dealt with a disgusting born-again businessman impatient for apocalypse.

I don’t actually think this is the best book in the series, having now read several of them. But it is more than good enough, and quite spectacular in it minimalism. Nothing to Lose is a book I recommend!

Rules of Deception, by Christopher Reich

Sometimes even I get lucky. I was when I stumbled across this book. Even though I have read much too many thrillers, I had never even heard about Christopher Reich. But one day the book was right in front of my face, simply. So I opened it, looked a little, and decided it might be worth reading.

Then I picked it up and started reading the same evening. And it just sucked me right in. The prologue and the first chapter are masterful, and more or less make it impossible to stop reading beyond that point. I have to admit I was late getting to be the next morning. But the book really did live up to the expectations it initially created.

The prologue is extremely ominous: There is a butterfly flying around above a high-security compound surrounded by a barbed wire in an unknown location. Then it turns out the butterfly a mechanical device carrying a mini-microwave transmitter. Then a guard says: “They have found us.”

Rules of Deception tells the story of a smart, resourceful and courageous doctor named Jonathan Ransom. Dr. Ransom is a surgeon who works for Doctors Without. He is a happily married man with a beautiful English wife, Emma, whom he loves. Life is good. Then Emma dies in an accident.

A few days later, some baggage claim tickets are delivered to his hotel room. They were for his wife. Not knowing what they are for, Ransom goes to claim them. The content of bags makes it clear that his wife was not at all the person he believed her to be. Suddenly Jonathan finds that his has known very little about his wife, and that his life has not at all been what it seems. As a matter of fact, his life is seemingly a big pile of lies. And now he finds himself right in the middle of the pile, trying to make sense and fighting to stay alive. In fact, it seems Jonathan’s only chance at survival lies in uncovering the devastating truth behind his wife’s secret life.

The plot in Rules of Deception is intricate and has multiple layers and the chapters are short and to the point. And the action is fast and often surprising. I found it a great thriller, full of excitement. Most certainly a writer I will read more of and watch out for!

Critical Mass, by Whitley Strieber

This is an overheated thriller based on a somewhat unlikely – but still interesting – scenario about nuclear terrorism by bestselling author Whitley Strieber (see also 2012: The War for Souls). The main character in the book is Jim Deutsch, a CIA contract employee, who has expertise in counter-proliferation work. He discovers that nuclear devices have been smuggled into the US. While investigating, he finds himself facing roadblocks at every turn, forcing him not to trust anyone. It seems America’s elaborate homeland security apparatus has been compromised.

Then, while Deutsch is still trying to make his report, Las Vegas is bombed and completely wiped out. As it turns out, the fate of the entire world seems to now be in the hands of an unknown Islamic terror organization, headed by a master-terrorist known only as the Madhi.

U.S. president William Fitzgerald is faced with the choice of launching a devastating counterattack aimed at much of the Muslim world, or surrendering to the Madhi, or trying to find the exact location of the threat. And the clock is running, and the deadline approaching.

Strieber is a good writer and knows very well how to build suspense. So, if you are willing to suspend belief a little, and allow that the scenario of Critical Mass is a possible scenario, then this is an exceedingly exciting thriller!

The author: Whitley Strieber is the author of over 30 novels, including the Wolfen, the Hunger, Warday, Communion, Superstorm, The Grays and 2012. The Wolfen, the Hunger, Communion, and Superstorm (as the Day After Tomorrow) were all made into films, and the Grays and 2012 are in preproduction at Sony and Warner Bros. respectively.

embedded by Embedded Video

YouTube DirektPromo video of the book

The Fire, by Katherine Neville

This is the sequel to the super-hit novel, The Eight, released more than a decade. I liked The Eight a lot, so I have read all her books since then. But so far, the other books have not been nearly as good. Unfortunately, this is true for The Fire as well. This book, like The Eight, is a filled to overflowing with the essences of history, mystery, chess and intrigue. But it is not integrated in the same convoluted and elegant way. And, besides, why does Neville insist on sticking to the same formula yet again?

The Fire starts out in 2003, in Colorado, where Alexandra Solarin is summoned home to her family’s ancestral Rocky Mountain hideaway for her mother’s birthday. When Alexandra arrives at her mother’s retreat, she finds that she must solve a puzzle to get into the deserted house. It is the first of many puzzles in a danger-crammed, picaresque narrative involving a legendary chess set.

Many characters from The Eight reappear, but the focus now is on Xie, a 12-year-old chess prodigy who has lost a pivotal game due to Amaurosis Scacchistica, or chess blindness.

En route to a rematch that could make her the youngest grandmaster ever, she and her father encounter even greater dangers: evidence that one of those long-buried pieces may have been unearthed, a discovery that leads to her father’s murder. Ten years later, Xie, now forbidden by her mother to play chess, is summoned to Colorado for her mother’s birthday party, but her mother seems to have vanished, leaving behind a series of clues, among them a chessboard laid out with Xie’s last game. Soon other guests arrive, including both the opponent to whom Xie lost that game and a group of neighbors with surprising ties to the world of chess. There are eight people in all, of course. And The Game is on again.

The Game is a quest for a mystical chess service that once belonged to Charlemagne, it spans two centuries and three continents, and intertwines historic and modern plots, archaeological treasure hunts, esoteric riddles, and puzzles encrypted with clues from the ancient past.

It is a book I think many of the fans of The Eight, like me, will want to read. However, it is not a book that captures the same way as The Eight did. For sure, The Fire is written with elegance and sophistication. But the characters don’t catch me the same way. As a literary thriller, this is not quite in the upper echelons of the genre, even though it is good I think I will only recommend this book to people who are already Katherine Neville fans. For others, I am not so sure, but I think it may be a disappointment.

The Quickie, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

I usually don’t like James Patterson so much, and therefore rarely reads him. In fact, the only book I have read by James Patterson that I really liked was The Jester. But that is a book that is about as non-Patterson as you can imagine. However, a couple of weeks ago, two Patterson-books landed on my desk more or less by accident, so I decided to give him another try.

And to my surprise I found that I blasted through The Quickie in two long sessions. I loved it. The format is typical Patterson I’d say – short chapters, an easy read, all of that. But the plot is different and the heroes very dark and shady indeed. The murderer is the husband of a female police officer in NYPD who thought she knew her husband.

Lauren Stillwell is a cop, and right after indulging in a “quickie” with a colleague as a revenge on her seemingly cheating husband, she witnesses her husband fighting with her lover and driving away with him. His dead body is found shortly thereafter. From there on, Lauren finds herself covering up the crime. And with each step she takes, she gets herself deeper into crime and corruption.

There are no heroes, no sympathetic characters in The Quickie. But there is an exciting, fast-paced plot, to some extent character-driven, that involves lust, deceit and murder. The Quickie has a noir aspect to it, along with the fast-moving, exciting action, that appealed to me. So this time, I will actually recommend a Patterson book. But let me also say that as all Patterson-books, it does require readers to suspend some disbelief and refrain pondering too seriously some of the fairly unlikely coincidences in the plot. Even so, The Quickie – to me – looks like one of Patterson’s best books.

Next Page »

• Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.org

• Recent Posts

  • Audacity, Privateer Out of Portsmouth, by J. E. Fender
  • The Disciple, by Stephen Coonts
  • High Citadel, by Desmond Bagley
  • Babette’s Feast, by Isak Dinesen / Karen Blixen – DVD
  • Beginning HTML5 and CSS3: Next Generation Web Standards, by Christopher Murphy
  • Judas Unchained, by Peter Hamilton
  • Lars Kepler – the pseudonym that aspires to be the next Stieg Larsson
  • The Bourne Deception, by Eric van Lustbader, Robert Ludlum
  • Dead Reckoning, by C. Northcote Parkinson
  • The Fight for Rome, by James Duffy
  • A Clash of Kings, by George R. R. Martin
  • Shadow Account, by Stephen Frey
  • The Wicked Trade, by Jan Needle
  • Arctic Drift, by Clive Cussler & Dirk Cussler
  • The Iron Pirate, by Douglas Reeman

• Views

  • The Joy of Sex, new edition! - 5,003 views
  • What is the name of Stieg Larsson’s third book? - 1,988 views
  • Beginner books about Python 3 - 1,036 views
  • A Fine Boy for Killing, by Jan Needle - 1,000 views
  • Pan, by Knut Hamsun - 650 views
  • Dreamers, by Knut Hamsun - 559 views
  • The Non-Designer’s Web Book, 3rd Edition, by Robin Williams - 510 views
  • The White Lioness, by Henning Mankell - 493 views
  • The Eight, by Katherine Neville - 466 views
  • The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski - 441 views
  • First Among Equals, by Jeffrey Archer - 431 views
  • The Day of the Jackal, by Frederick Forsyth - 420 views
  • Doyle Brunson’s Super System: A Course in Power Poker 1 & 2 - 420 views
  • Flight of the Intruder, by Stephen Coonts - 416 views
  • The Faithful Wife, by Sigrid Undset - 408 views
  • Prince of Fire, by Daniel Silva - 379 views
  • Syndicating Web Sites with RSS Feeds for Dummies, by Ellen Finkelstein - 377 views
  • Rising Sun, by Michael Crichton - 374 views
  • Top 10 suspense books ever? - 370 views
  • Bones of the Dragon (Dragonships of Vindras), by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman - 334 views
• 
  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  
  

  

  
  

  

• The World of Books

  • Blackwater, by Kerstin Ekman
  • The Vivero Letter, by Desmond Bagley
  • The Day Trader, by Stephen Frey
  • War and Remembrance, by Herman Wouk
  • So Near So Far, by C. Northcote Parkinson
  • Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D. H. Lawrence
  • The e-book scene: Fight over rights, new e-book readers
  • P.D. James on Detective Fiction!
  • Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift
  • Detective Inspector Huss, by Helene Tursten

• historical fiction

  • Audacity, Privateer Out of Portsmouth, by J. E. Fender
  • Dead Reckoning, by C. Northcote Parkinson
  • The Fight for Rome, by James Duffy
  • The Wicked Trade, by Jan Needle
  • The Iron Pirate, by Douglas Reeman
  • Heart of Oak, by Alexander Kent
  • Post Captain, by Patrick O’Brian
  • Gladiatrix, by Russell Whitfield
  • A Fine Boy for Killing, by Jan Needle
  • Horatio Hornblower on DVD

• Thriller

  • The Disciple, by Stephen Coonts
  • High Citadel, by Desmond Bagley
  • The Bourne Deception, by Eric van Lustbader, Robert Ludlum
  • Shadow Account, by Stephen Frey
  • Arctic Drift, by Clive Cussler & Dirk Cussler
  • Nimitz Class, by Patrick Robinson
  • The Dogs of War, by Frederick Forsyth
  • Lost Souls, by Lisa Jackson
  • Nothing to Lose, by Lee Child
  • Rules of Deception, by Christopher Reich

• Search for:

• Exchange links?

  If you have a book blog and want to exchange links, email me! (post (at) nekkidblogger.com)

• Blogroll

  • Euro bookblog
  • Hakan Nesser site
  • Nordic Bookblog
  • ScandinavianBooks
  • WordPress Planet
  • World of Books

• Amazon US – bestsellers

• Amazon UK – bestsellers

• ScandinavianBooks.com

• Amazon DE

• Euro bookblog

  • The Man with the Iron Heart, by Harry Turtledove
  • HMS Saracen, by Douglas Reeman
  • The Golden Keel, by Desmond Bagley
  • The Temporal Void, by Peter F. Hamilton
  • Mother’s Elling ( Mors Elling ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2]
  • Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook, Special Edition, by Dan Cederholm
  • David Sklansky: The Theory of Poker
  • E-book readers: More choices
  • A Gate at the Stairs, by Lorrie Moore
  • First Family, by David Baldacci

• Categories

  • About books
  • Alan Lewrie
  • bestseller
  • book news
  • book review
  • crime book
    • Arnaldur Indridason
    • Fred Vargas
    • Henning Mankell
    • Inger Frimansson
    • Jo Nesbo
    • Joseph Wambaugh
    • Karin Fossum
    • Mari Jungstedt
    • Michael Connelly
    • Stieg Larsson
  • CSS
  • CSS3
  • Dewey Lambdin
  • DVD
  • erotic fiction
    • Lisa Kleypas
  • espionage
  • Fantasy
    • George R. R. Martin
    • Margaret Weis
    • R. A. Savlatore
    • Tracy Hickman
  • Fiction
    • David Wroblewski
    • Janice Lee
    • Karen Blixen
    • Knut Hamsun
    • Linn Ullman
    • Paulo Coelho
    • Per Petterson
    • Sigrid Undset
  • French writer
  • historical fiction
    • Alexander Kent
    • Ben Kane
    • Bernard Cornwell
    • C. Northcote Parkinson
    • C. S. Forester
    • Conn Iggulden
    • Douglas Reeman
    • Dudley Pope
    • Frederick Marryat
    • G. S. Beard
    • J. E. Fender
    • James Duffy
    • Jan Needle
    • Jay Worrall
    • Julian Stockwin
    • Katherine Neville
    • Patrick O'Brian
    • Richard Woodman
    • Robert Low
  • HTML5
  • Icelandic writer
  • International bestseller
  • Main character
    • Anders Knutas
    • Arnold Morgan
    • Carn Hamilton Coq Rouge
    • Charles Egdemont
    • Edgar Sawtelle
    • Gabriel Allon
    • Genghis Khan
    • Harry Hole
    • Horatio Hornblower
    • inspector Erlendur Sveinson
    • Inspector Konrad Sejer
    • Jack Aubrey
    • Jake Grafton
    • Jason Bourne
    • Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg
    • Johan Sletten
    • John Connor
    • Kurt Wallander
    • Lisbeth Salander
    • Lord Ramage
    • Mikael Blomkvist
    • Nathaniel Drinkwater
    • Richard Bolitho
    • Richard Delancey
    • Thomas Kydd
    • William Bentley
  • military fiction
    • Steven Coonts
  • naval fiction
  • New York Times bestseller
  • Nobel Prize Winner
  • Non-fiction
    • blogging
    • poker
    • Python
    • SEO
    • The Joy of Sex
    • web design
  • Norwegian writer
  • Prize winning novel
  • recommendation
  • Science Fiction
    • A.E. van Vogt
    • Peter F. Hamilton
  • Short stories
  • Swedish writer
  • technothriller
  • Thriller
    • Christopher Reich
    • Clive Cussler
    • Daniel Silva
    • Desmond Bagley
    • Eric van Lustbader
    • Frederick Forsyth
    • James Patterson
    • Jan Guillou
    • Jeffrey Archer
    • Lee Child
    • Michael Crichton
    • Patrick Robinson
    • Robert Ludlum
    • Stephen Frey
    • Whitley Strieber