Catching Up
I read William Kent Krueger’s MERCY FALLS last week. The novel is part of the Cork O’Conner series set in rural Minnesota. It’s an impressive piece of work as Krueger’s fans figured out long before I did. If all politics are local, the same might be said for series detectives. MERCY FALLS shares many of the elements to be found in the work of CJ Box, Archer Mayer, Steve Thayer, Steve Hamilton, and of course, James Lee Burke. These writers create an intimate feeling, not cozy, but detailed regarding the protagonist’s domestic life. Krueger and Burke add poetic prose styles to chart the innocence of the land, a contrast to Cormac McCarthy who uses setting as an untamed evil. In the wrong hands this homage to nature becomes schmaltz or manipulation. Krueger does a great job of avoiding the simplistic notion that nature is good, man is evil.
Linda Fairstein is wildly popular. I’m reading THE KILLS and it works. In this category Michelle Martinez is a better writer, but Fairstein has learned her craft, although she confuses me with her point of view shifts at times. I don’t know who is speaking. Her ADA character works, and this dialogue driven story is interesting. Fairstein is more aloof than Martinez so there are fewer surprises, but also fewer detours.
What’s going on with thrillers? It’s safe to say we have the Renaissance in the rear view mirror. The smoking beast of the techno variety is dormant. Michael Crichton is still trying to frighten us, although a few paragraphs reveal he’s no relation to Tolstoy. Little old ladies parachuting into Afghanistan is petering out. Ian Rankin has cranked out a few but they disappoint. Whither the thriller in 2007?
December 30th, 2006 at 4:22 pm
I can tell you it’s not easy getting one published! Let’s hope the demand for “Terrorist Thrillers” shows an increase. Wishing you a Happy Healthy 2007.
December 30th, 2006 at 5:15 pm
Thanks, Steve. Maybe 2007 will be the year for Sand Storm.
December 31st, 2006 at 8:33 pm
Nah, the terrorist thing is over. Terrorists never kill anyone newsworthy. If you could convince terrorists to blow up Pamela Anderson or Lindsay Lohan, maybe we would get somewhere.
I’m guessing that 2007 will be the year of Extreme Diet Thrillers. Semi-famous actresses and models begin starving themselves (for reasons to be revealed in the shocking conclusion). Will the hero be able to make them eat cheesecake–and keep it down–before eating disorders claim even more semi-famous victims?
That and perhaps Brad-Pitt-girlfriend thrillers.
Trust me, I’ve got my fingers on the pulse of the checkout line. (Meanwhile, I suggest we all include Nicole Richie in our existing novels, perhaps as a novelist bombed by terrorists.)