I don’t often read thrillers, but when I do, it’s a binge fest. Last year a friend gave me a book by Lee Child and within weeks, I’d read a half dozen Jack Reacher books. And of course once I read, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATOO, I had to see what that crazy Lisbeth Salander was up to next. Whew.
On my bed stand now is NEMESIS by the Norwegian writer, Jo Nesbo. In my office is REDBREAST, by the same author. Last weekend I saw THE HEADHUNTER, the hilarious/scary/wild movie about a corporate headhunter/art thief based on a novel by . . . Jo Nesbo.
If he were a carny, he’d be operating the twistiest-turniest-plungiest roller-coaster, and cackling like crazy as riders screamed to please, please let them off.
I have no idea how good thriller writers write good thrillers. How do they keep everything straight? How do they know about CIA operatives and police procedure and computer algorithms and mercenaries and corrupt militaries and African diamond mines and buried war records and ey yi yi . . .
Who knows, some day I might write a book about a Minnesotan lunch lady who after serving chow mein hotdish to mouthy seventh graders, escapes to her basement Dell where she hacks into the records of delinquent Nordstrom customers, causing credit havoc while charging shoes to Ron Paul’s Super-Pac.