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Weatherman #1
The Weatherman: A Novel
A serial killer is on the loose in Minnesota, snapping young women’s necks with each change of the seasons. Within twenty-four hours of the first murder, TV weatherman Dixon Bell, a hulking eccentric, warns his viewers that a tornado is about to strike. The National Weather Service hasn’t called it, but Dixon Bell does because he sees it coming in his mind. Among all the complex and original characters in this astonishing novel, the shifting weather and landscape of Minnesota stand out—demonic, majestic, bizarre, magical.
Dixon Bell is not the only eccentric on Channel 7’s Sky High News. His alter ego is an investigative news producer named Rick Beanblossom, a Vietnam vet and Pulitzer Prize winner, who hides his napalmed face, and his feelings, behind a mask. Guided along the way by an unnamed police source, Rick is on the track of the serial killer. Then he is assigned an unlikely partner, Andrea Labore, a lovely and ambitious ex-cop turned TV reporter. The newsman and the weatherman start out as bitter rivals for this gifted woman. But an ambivalent friendship grows between them when Dixon Bell becomes a suspect in the weather-related killings and Rick Beanblossom sets out to prove him innocent.
Steve Thayer is already being compared to writers like Thomas Harris and Theodore Dreiser. But Thayer possesses his own voice. Electrifying from a flash tornado to a cataclysmic death house scene, The Weatherman combines action and suspense with nature’s power to dwarf and mirror human passions.
Dixon Bell is not the only eccentric on Channel 7’s Sky High News. His alter ego is an investigative news producer named Rick Beanblossom, a Vietnam vet and Pulitzer Prize winner, who hides his napalmed face, and his feelings, behind a mask. Guided along the way by an unnamed police source, Rick is on the track of the serial killer. Then he is assigned an unlikely partner, Andrea Labore, a lovely and ambitious ex-cop turned TV reporter. The newsman and the weatherman start out as bitter rivals for this gifted woman. But an ambivalent friendship grows between them when Dixon Bell becomes a suspect in the weather-related killings and Rick Beanblossom sets out to prove him innocent.
Steve Thayer is already being compared to writers like Thomas Harris and Theodore Dreiser. But Thayer possesses his own voice. Electrifying from a flash tornado to a cataclysmic death house scene, The Weatherman combines action and suspense with nature’s power to dwarf and mirror human passions.
464 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1995
24 people are currently reading
855 people want to read
About the author
Steve Thayer
23 books69 followersSTEVE THAYER is the New York Times best-selling author of Saint Mudd, Silent Snow, and The Wheat Field. He lives in Edina, Minnesota.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 135 reviews
July 11, 2018
“You may weather the storm, but will you weather the aftermath?”
― Anthony T. Hincks
Minnesotans love their weather. Love talking about it. Complaining about it. Watching the forecasts. Complaining about the forecasts when they’re wrong. So how could I resist a book called The Weatherman by Steve Thayer, a Minnesota author? The cover features an ominous tornado with an angry face.
Mr. Thayer has invented some vivid characters in this novel about a serial killer dubbed “the Calendar Killer” who strikes once every season. The title role belongs to a Mississippi-born TV weatherman named Dixon Bell, who has an uncanny ability to predict weather events that even the National Weather Service does not forecast. Excuse me. Bell insists that he does not predict it; he only “reads the weather.” I had very mixed feelings about this man. On one hand, he seems capable, even likable. He visits local schools to speak to children about weather, and he is extremely knowledgeable about weather. However, he has been unlucky in love since high school and seems to hold a grudge, if not against the women who rebuffed him, then he dislikes the men who might be his competition.
One such man is Rick Beanblossom. Rick is a news producer at Channel 7. He wears a mask because of severe burns suffered in Vietnam. Those scenes were among my favorite parts of the entire book because of the sensitivity and humanity shown by the nurse “Angel” and Rick. Now, at somewhere near 40 years old, Rick Beanblossom – he’s almost always referred to by his full name – seems to be hiding behind his mask.
Other memorable characters include Andrea Lebore – known around the station by some as Andrea “the bore,” a cop known as “the Marlboro Man,” a hypocritical right-wing governor, and plenty of other news and political figures. Several times I found myself looking at the publication date of this book because there were events that happen in this book that seemed based on true events that made the news in Minnesota. But when I looked them up, they hadn’t happened until years after The Weatherman was written! One such event was a tragedy involving a politician. The disaster I was thinking of didn’t occur until 2002 and involved a Democratic Senator. I chuckled when Andrea gets a personal tour of the governor’s mansion and the governor elect mentions that the former governor’s teenage son used the attic for his room and it wasn’t to code. That made me think of Governor Jesse “The Body” Ventura, whose son infamously had parties at the mansion, but Ventura wasn’t governor until 1999. Perhaps Mr. Thayer is able to predict the future a bit like his weatherman? There was one true case that seemed based on a real event, and that was the kidnapping. The resolution was different, but the initial report was much the same.
But if you want to read about the weather, there is lots and lots and lots of weather in this book. I suggest you skim much of that. It will save you time, unless you’re really fascinated by it. I have gone back and forth about how to rate this book. At one point, Rick is at the morgue having a rather irreverent discussion with Dr. Freda “Freddie” Wilhelm, the forensic pathologist and chief medical examiner for Ramsey County. She comments that the TV station must be a lively place to work. Rick says, “It’s a news show, Freddie, it’s not a soap opera.” Her response, “Oh, it is to me.” And that’s how this book felt to me much of the time.
However, by the last hundred or so pages, things get much more serious. What of the serial killer? The State of Minnesota debates the death penalty. Nothing is more serious than that. By the end, I felt sad. Shocked. The Weatherman could almost be a metaphor for the seasons of a person’s life, with its ups and downs. Certainly some of the characters do change and grow. For the most part, the story held my interest and I came to care about what happened to the characters, even to like them, despite their flaws. I was on the fence the whole time about the guilt or innocence of the convicted killer until the big reveal. On the whole, this book was made more fun for me simply because of the Minnesota connection.
3.5 stars
― Anthony T. Hincks
Minnesotans love their weather. Love talking about it. Complaining about it. Watching the forecasts. Complaining about the forecasts when they’re wrong. So how could I resist a book called The Weatherman by Steve Thayer, a Minnesota author? The cover features an ominous tornado with an angry face.
Mr. Thayer has invented some vivid characters in this novel about a serial killer dubbed “the Calendar Killer” who strikes once every season. The title role belongs to a Mississippi-born TV weatherman named Dixon Bell, who has an uncanny ability to predict weather events that even the National Weather Service does not forecast. Excuse me. Bell insists that he does not predict it; he only “reads the weather.” I had very mixed feelings about this man. On one hand, he seems capable, even likable. He visits local schools to speak to children about weather, and he is extremely knowledgeable about weather. However, he has been unlucky in love since high school and seems to hold a grudge, if not against the women who rebuffed him, then he dislikes the men who might be his competition.
One such man is Rick Beanblossom. Rick is a news producer at Channel 7. He wears a mask because of severe burns suffered in Vietnam. Those scenes were among my favorite parts of the entire book because of the sensitivity and humanity shown by the nurse “Angel” and Rick. Now, at somewhere near 40 years old, Rick Beanblossom – he’s almost always referred to by his full name – seems to be hiding behind his mask.
Other memorable characters include Andrea Lebore – known around the station by some as Andrea “the bore,” a cop known as “the Marlboro Man,” a hypocritical right-wing governor, and plenty of other news and political figures. Several times I found myself looking at the publication date of this book because there were events that happen in this book that seemed based on true events that made the news in Minnesota. But when I looked them up, they hadn’t happened until years after The Weatherman was written! One such event was a tragedy involving a politician. The disaster I was thinking of didn’t occur until 2002 and involved a Democratic Senator. I chuckled when Andrea gets a personal tour of the governor’s mansion and the governor elect mentions that the former governor’s teenage son used the attic for his room and it wasn’t to code. That made me think of Governor Jesse “The Body” Ventura, whose son infamously had parties at the mansion, but Ventura wasn’t governor until 1999. Perhaps Mr. Thayer is able to predict the future a bit like his weatherman? There was one true case that seemed based on a real event, and that was the kidnapping. The resolution was different, but the initial report was much the same.
But if you want to read about the weather, there is lots and lots and lots of weather in this book. I suggest you skim much of that. It will save you time, unless you’re really fascinated by it. I have gone back and forth about how to rate this book. At one point, Rick is at the morgue having a rather irreverent discussion with Dr. Freda “Freddie” Wilhelm, the forensic pathologist and chief medical examiner for Ramsey County. She comments that the TV station must be a lively place to work. Rick says, “It’s a news show, Freddie, it’s not a soap opera.” Her response, “Oh, it is to me.” And that’s how this book felt to me much of the time.
However, by the last hundred or so pages, things get much more serious. What of the serial killer? The State of Minnesota debates the death penalty. Nothing is more serious than that. By the end, I felt sad. Shocked. The Weatherman could almost be a metaphor for the seasons of a person’s life, with its ups and downs. Certainly some of the characters do change and grow. For the most part, the story held my interest and I came to care about what happened to the characters, even to like them, despite their flaws. I was on the fence the whole time about the guilt or innocence of the convicted killer until the big reveal. On the whole, this book was made more fun for me simply because of the Minnesota connection.
3.5 stars
May 2, 2010
I didn't care for it very much. The characterizations did not seem consistent or real. Part of that inconsistency is how we jump around in subject; weather, Vietnam, who is committing murders, TV news and the death penalty. The author uses the book as a forum to express opinions on these things sometimes rather than telling a story. He also seems to blame women for the crimes of men, he is pretty consistent with that opinion.
I really think that the invention of the electric chair is one of the sickest ever and I strongly dislike Thomas Edison for it's creation and all the killings, animal and human that have been committed with it.
The only thing that I really liked in the book was the weather but I'm one of those people who like to watch the weather channel.
I really think that the invention of the electric chair is one of the sickest ever and I strongly dislike Thomas Edison for it's creation and all the killings, animal and human that have been committed with it.
The only thing that I really liked in the book was the weather but I'm one of those people who like to watch the weather channel.
October 10, 2011
Wowza. This book really had me. It pulled me in and kept me thinking the entire time, and I never really knew who the murderer was until the very end, and even then I had to doubt it. Very engaging, and I always enjoy local books. I listened to this book, and I really got annoyed that the reader kept mispronouncing the words, especially "Edina."
December 7, 2010
The books starts with a vivid and riveting account of a tornado as seen through the eyes of a helicopter weather and traffic team. It absolutley made my spine tingle, having lived in Minnesota all my life and having been in more than a few tornadoes, I was in awe of the detail and accuracy that Thayer used to describe the storm.
Great book....I pretty much figured out the ending early but I didn't want the murderer to be who I thought it was so I could not put it down!
Follow this with the next one "Silent Snow" for a great ride!
Great book....I pretty much figured out the ending early but I didn't want the murderer to be who I thought it was so I could not put it down!
Follow this with the next one "Silent Snow" for a great ride!
July 21, 2011
I don't want to spoil anything, but the end of this book was a head scratcher. I remember putting it down and thinking...well...that sucked! I got the feeling that the author wanted to go against the grain and be "different." It didn't work.
August 13, 2019
I was ready to rant about Stephen King’s endorsement of this book. Authors regularly gush about new authors, not because they like the book, but because their publisher asked them too. Once you’re big enough to be influential, there’s no excuse for cheating readers with false praise. King, author of ‘On Writing,’ should be the last author to pump a bad book.
Then I read King’s back-jacket blurb more carefully. Though the words are positive, he’s careful to praise only elements that arguable deserve it. He knows how to put words together; here, I believe he slipped his negative feelings past the dullards who make up the publisher’s marketing team. Near the end of the blurb: ‘. . . broadcast news . . . is the keystone of the book and I intend to recommend it to everybody I know IN THAT FIELD [caps added] . . . this . . . story will stay in my memory for a long time.’ Like the taste of sour milk. King might know one or two broadcast news people. He probably doesn’t like them, but he’s going to recommend the book. Not to anybody else, though. Thank you, Stephen King, for having some integrity.
What Thayer does well is capture the back-stabbing, superficial, egotistical snake-pit that is TV news. He also makes a nice backdrop of extreme MN weather. It takes half a book, but two of the characters emerge as complex and likeable people. Everything else, he does badly.
His prose is sloppy and pretentious. From the beginning, all his characters are unlikeable assholes. A sensible reader would quit there. The sexy anchorwoman, having an affair with the governor, has a discussion with him about the murders. The governor is frustrated he can’t fight the serial killer the way he’d fight a rival politician. “Sometimes, I think there’s nothing I can do except let the police do their job.” Ha! The cops are useless too, so that won’t work. The sexy anchorwoman agrees with him that the serial murder of young women could be bad for both their careers. As a reader, I hoped the killer would kill both of them.
The book spans years, apparently so that each chapter can have a new seasonal weather event. Tornado, downpour, flood, blizzard, ice-storm. These are dramatic back-drops, but it’s hard to become engaged when we have to keep leaping forward three or four months to catch the next weather moment.
Then they arrest the TV weatherman. They have a partial fingerprint, almost certainly not his, in a public parking ramp that all the TV staff use and where the first victim was found. The weatherman is a big guy; witnesses have described the killer as big. He has size 14 shoes but doesn’t own the brand that left a shoeprint at another murder scene. The murders all occur around weather events when visibility and mobility are impaired. The police find out the Weatherman had a crush on a girl in high school, and she rejected him.
The arrest, the trial (which takes two months to present what I did in the previous paragraph), and the conviction are all based on this new type of logic. A fingerprint with some similar points to his couldn’t be in the parking lot he uses daily unless he’s the killer. Since he’s a big guy, he must be the killer. Since he has size 14 shoes, he must be the killer. And, topping it all, since he had his heart broken when he was 17, he must be the guy who killed seven young women. Unspeakably ludicrous, but no more ludicrous than the notion that the police would not look for other evidence: where was he at the time of each killing? Did he plan the ambush sites, and if he did, who saw him, what part of his day did he use to observe, what was his method?
The problem with crazy killers is that they’re crazy. We don’t have a sensible chain of motivations that lead to the killings, we have crazy. This is boring or annoying, and it’s up to the author to show us the illogical path the killer has chosen. See: ‘Red Dragon’ by Thomas Harris. Here, Thayer has pretended that a mystery can be: Five normal people, all assholes. None has a motivation to commit the crime. Then, two-thirds of the way in, let’s declare asshole number 4 to be a psycho.
Pathetic.
Then I read King’s back-jacket blurb more carefully. Though the words are positive, he’s careful to praise only elements that arguable deserve it. He knows how to put words together; here, I believe he slipped his negative feelings past the dullards who make up the publisher’s marketing team. Near the end of the blurb: ‘. . . broadcast news . . . is the keystone of the book and I intend to recommend it to everybody I know IN THAT FIELD [caps added] . . . this . . . story will stay in my memory for a long time.’ Like the taste of sour milk. King might know one or two broadcast news people. He probably doesn’t like them, but he’s going to recommend the book. Not to anybody else, though. Thank you, Stephen King, for having some integrity.
What Thayer does well is capture the back-stabbing, superficial, egotistical snake-pit that is TV news. He also makes a nice backdrop of extreme MN weather. It takes half a book, but two of the characters emerge as complex and likeable people. Everything else, he does badly.
His prose is sloppy and pretentious. From the beginning, all his characters are unlikeable assholes. A sensible reader would quit there. The sexy anchorwoman, having an affair with the governor, has a discussion with him about the murders. The governor is frustrated he can’t fight the serial killer the way he’d fight a rival politician. “Sometimes, I think there’s nothing I can do except let the police do their job.” Ha! The cops are useless too, so that won’t work. The sexy anchorwoman agrees with him that the serial murder of young women could be bad for both their careers. As a reader, I hoped the killer would kill both of them.
The book spans years, apparently so that each chapter can have a new seasonal weather event. Tornado, downpour, flood, blizzard, ice-storm. These are dramatic back-drops, but it’s hard to become engaged when we have to keep leaping forward three or four months to catch the next weather moment.
Then they arrest the TV weatherman. They have a partial fingerprint, almost certainly not his, in a public parking ramp that all the TV staff use and where the first victim was found. The weatherman is a big guy; witnesses have described the killer as big. He has size 14 shoes but doesn’t own the brand that left a shoeprint at another murder scene. The murders all occur around weather events when visibility and mobility are impaired. The police find out the Weatherman had a crush on a girl in high school, and she rejected him.
The arrest, the trial (which takes two months to present what I did in the previous paragraph), and the conviction are all based on this new type of logic. A fingerprint with some similar points to his couldn’t be in the parking lot he uses daily unless he’s the killer. Since he’s a big guy, he must be the killer. Since he has size 14 shoes, he must be the killer. And, topping it all, since he had his heart broken when he was 17, he must be the guy who killed seven young women. Unspeakably ludicrous, but no more ludicrous than the notion that the police would not look for other evidence: where was he at the time of each killing? Did he plan the ambush sites, and if he did, who saw him, what part of his day did he use to observe, what was his method?
The problem with crazy killers is that they’re crazy. We don’t have a sensible chain of motivations that lead to the killings, we have crazy. This is boring or annoying, and it’s up to the author to show us the illogical path the killer has chosen. See: ‘Red Dragon’ by Thomas Harris. Here, Thayer has pretended that a mystery can be: Five normal people, all assholes. None has a motivation to commit the crime. Then, two-thirds of the way in, let’s declare asshole number 4 to be a psycho.
Pathetic.
September 1, 2024
AUGUST 2024 There were very few likable characters. I really liked the dying cop and Rick Beanblossom (such a weird last name). But this was very poorly written. It would jump from perspective to perspective, present to someone’s past and back again. Sex was put in the story simply to have a sex scene. It made no sense at all. The whole porn storyline was completely pointless. The corrupt politician…gross. Women were spoken about quite horribly. There was very little respect for them. There was so much pointless drivel in the book. I kept shaking my head wondering why I was reading it. I felt like the author was trying to throw us off the whole time about the murderer when he made it plain as day from the very first murder. I also didn’t like reading about the electrocution…not once but twice. Why? So macabre. I was very glad the masked man found happiness in the end. I won’t read any more of his books. They are not for me.
February 21, 2011
This book was ridiculously awful. The ending was horrible and made me regret ever having picked up the book.
September 9, 2019
My first book by Mr. Thayer was The Leper and my review can be found in GR. I enjoyed it so much I picked up his 1995 book The Weatherman. Set in Minnesota with the news team of Channel 7 we are introduced into the background of the cutthroat back stories of tv news sets. This team has a legendary Weatherman, Dixon Bell usually only referred the Weatherman. After predicting a massive tornado that tears through the twin cities it also awakens a serial killer, killing with the seasons. Rick Beanblossom, a horrible Vietnam burn victim, always with a masked face, television producer and writer wants to find out who. These two men’s lives become intertwined as the killer is caught, but did he do it? This story is complex and fast.. you never can guess until the very end. The story blends in the death penalty controversy and corrupt politicians with a love story and tragic scenes, war stories and lives interrupted. I can’t not give this story more praise. This should be on every readers list. You will not be disappointed!
June 13, 2022
Este es un caso de uno de esos libros que empiezan bien, pero que poco a poco se van desinflando hasta que acabas perdiendo por completo el interés en el. El autor agrega varias subtramas que no llevan a ningún sitio que ni siquiera encajan en forma natural dentro del universo que ha construido, de modo que hacen que se sientan como algo infantil, acabando por hundir más una historia que nunca es capaz de sentirse lo suficientemente "redonda" como para que emocione a nadie.
Su única virtud es que, tal y como debe ser un libro hecho para las masas, se lee bastante rápido, de modo que no constituye una distracción demasiado seria para ningún lector de hueso colorado.
Lo recomendaría para aquellos que no leen demasiado, a quienes les llama la atención el thriller, pero siempre y cuando no se sientan decepcionados por el hecho de que parte de la acción se dé en un juzgado, y no tenga toda la acción que probablemente será más sencilla de encontrar en muchas de las películas que llegan a la programación de la televisión.
Debí de haberlo supuesto en cuanto vi que incluía algunas palabras de Stephen King recomendándolo, hasta ahora, casi todos los libros que he leído usando a King en la portada como recomendación, han resultado una bazofia. Este no es la excepción.
Su única virtud es que, tal y como debe ser un libro hecho para las masas, se lee bastante rápido, de modo que no constituye una distracción demasiado seria para ningún lector de hueso colorado.
Lo recomendaría para aquellos que no leen demasiado, a quienes les llama la atención el thriller, pero siempre y cuando no se sientan decepcionados por el hecho de que parte de la acción se dé en un juzgado, y no tenga toda la acción que probablemente será más sencilla de encontrar en muchas de las películas que llegan a la programación de la televisión.
Debí de haberlo supuesto en cuanto vi que incluía algunas palabras de Stephen King recomendándolo, hasta ahora, casi todos los libros que he leído usando a King en la portada como recomendación, han resultado una bazofia. Este no es la excepción.
July 27, 2023
I don’t really write reviews but this book definitely deserves a well recognition.
Characters are solid and very well crafted, and the plot will keep your brain running trying to figure what’s going to happen next, but let me tell you that you won’t be prepared for the next chapter.
This novel kept me hooked from the beginning and at some parts you might think “Why is this relevant?” Believe me it is, everything in this novel happens for a reason.
“This is a wonderful story, one that will stay in my memory for a long time.” said Stephen King about The Weatherman and I couldn’t agree more with those comments.
If you give it a shot I hope you enjoy this amazing story as much as a I did.
Characters are solid and very well crafted, and the plot will keep your brain running trying to figure what’s going to happen next, but let me tell you that you won’t be prepared for the next chapter.
This novel kept me hooked from the beginning and at some parts you might think “Why is this relevant?” Believe me it is, everything in this novel happens for a reason.
“This is a wonderful story, one that will stay in my memory for a long time.” said Stephen King about The Weatherman and I couldn’t agree more with those comments.
If you give it a shot I hope you enjoy this amazing story as much as a I did.
January 20, 2025
This is the first time I read a book by Steve Thayer. I was carried along by talented writing about real people, albeit fiction. I won't spoil it for anyone but I will say this: the content is multifaceted but not for the sensitive of mind. The suspense is ominous and eerie at times. The spine chilling story unfolds with topnotch writing that will have you on the edge of your seat until the very last page. It's written with love, hate, and the horror of life in the characters he's built ang gets a 5-star rating from me.
February 21, 2019
This was a very fun read. It starts out kind of slow, but the end was thrilling. I was constantly changing my mind on who I thought the killer was up until the final page and even now I’m not quite sure. I couldn’t put it down. Always fun to read a book from home.
April 10, 2021
Read in 1995. A disfigured Vietnam vet teams up with the local achorwoman to catch the serial killer known as The Weatherman. Taut, thrilling and involving. One of my favorites that year.
June 7, 2017
Grabbed this by accident from the library, I was looking for The Weatherman by Clint McCown. Oh well. The book was pretty good but I remember reading it a long time ago, some parts came back to me. Still not a bad read.
April 25, 2024
I wasn't really sure if this was a mystery, a character study, a cultural look at all things Minnesota or an attempt at a Coen Brothers' movie-like take.
First, I think Steve Thayer is a good writer. His writing is crisp, emotional, descriptive, all things good. However, this story seems to wander around and some of the characterizations seem unnecessary. The book is over 400 pages long; it could have been shorter. The ending seems cliched a bit with everyone reflecting on life; a resolution of sorts for all. The book focuses on seasons and a serial killer who strikes with changing weather. The ending is a metaphor for all that. Everyone looks back at the seasons of their own lives.
The premise is about a Channel 7 weatherman in Minneapolis who has an uncanny talent for predicting weather. He is successful and well-liked, but he strikes out in love and that may be the motivating factor for several deaths around southern Minnesota.
Meanwhile, the lead anchor is seeing the governor, the news producer who was burned in Vietnam during a napalm drop and wears a blue mask to hide his facial disfigurement is hot for the anchor. The state is grappling with initiating the death penalty, an old cop riddled with emphysema is on the hunt for the killer and the Weatherman extolls his innocence even after convicted.
It is an odd assortment of characters. I liked the book in part because I lived in Minnesota and I worked in television news briefly and then switched to newspaper for a career. I tend to despise television news gathering and Thayer didn't pull any punches in showing how vapid and exploiting tv news really is.
It's a strange trip if you decide to read The Weatherman. It offers cliches of Minnesota -- always talking about the weather, the springtime blizzards, flooding due to snow melt, the IDS building in Minneapolis as seen as the monolith of the state, talk of the hard-to-believe fact that the Vikings are playing in a domed stadium, et al.
But, again, Thayer writes well. This is a good example of his writing skill, but maybe not necessarily of story-telling skills since it wanders all over the place. Oof-dah!
First, I think Steve Thayer is a good writer. His writing is crisp, emotional, descriptive, all things good. However, this story seems to wander around and some of the characterizations seem unnecessary. The book is over 400 pages long; it could have been shorter. The ending seems cliched a bit with everyone reflecting on life; a resolution of sorts for all. The book focuses on seasons and a serial killer who strikes with changing weather. The ending is a metaphor for all that. Everyone looks back at the seasons of their own lives.
The premise is about a Channel 7 weatherman in Minneapolis who has an uncanny talent for predicting weather. He is successful and well-liked, but he strikes out in love and that may be the motivating factor for several deaths around southern Minnesota.
Meanwhile, the lead anchor is seeing the governor, the news producer who was burned in Vietnam during a napalm drop and wears a blue mask to hide his facial disfigurement is hot for the anchor. The state is grappling with initiating the death penalty, an old cop riddled with emphysema is on the hunt for the killer and the Weatherman extolls his innocence even after convicted.
It is an odd assortment of characters. I liked the book in part because I lived in Minnesota and I worked in television news briefly and then switched to newspaper for a career. I tend to despise television news gathering and Thayer didn't pull any punches in showing how vapid and exploiting tv news really is.
It's a strange trip if you decide to read The Weatherman. It offers cliches of Minnesota -- always talking about the weather, the springtime blizzards, flooding due to snow melt, the IDS building in Minneapolis as seen as the monolith of the state, talk of the hard-to-believe fact that the Vikings are playing in a domed stadium, et al.
But, again, Thayer writes well. This is a good example of his writing skill, but maybe not necessarily of story-telling skills since it wanders all over the place. Oof-dah!
August 1, 2016
Another mystery by Steve Thayer, actually I should have read this one first and Silent Snow next, but I didn't. I liked them both, and knowing some of the characters in the second book, helped as far as their lives before and the interesting information behind the scenes of big-time news programs. A really good mystery, I love this authors writing and how detailed it is, as the story moves along. I'll be reading more of his books.
From Amazon:
Andrea Labore is a beautiful, ambitious TV newscaster. She's hungry for a story that could make her career. At the same time, at the same station, two men are hungering for her. One is Rick Beanblossom, a star reporter who hides his disfigured face behind a cotton mask. The other is the station's uncanny weatherman, Dixon Bell, who appears a gentle genius. When Andrea goes after the story of a serial killer, it becomes clear that the seasonal murderer is after her.
From Amazon:
Andrea Labore is a beautiful, ambitious TV newscaster. She's hungry for a story that could make her career. At the same time, at the same station, two men are hungering for her. One is Rick Beanblossom, a star reporter who hides his disfigured face behind a cotton mask. The other is the station's uncanny weatherman, Dixon Bell, who appears a gentle genius. When Andrea goes after the story of a serial killer, it becomes clear that the seasonal murderer is after her.
September 19, 2017
Excellent mystery--terrifying and with many twists and turns. The Weatherman did not follow the path of a conventional mystery, which is perhaps easier for an author when the book is not part of a series. The characters were richly drawn, with unexpected facets to their personalities--it wasn't just the beautiful blonde anchorwoman, the horribly scarred Vietnam vet, and the charming southern meteorologist.
But the story became more than the usual mystery, when it continued beyond the capture. There was a graphic scene of an execution gone wrong--and a question posed: what if the wrong man were put to death? This stretched convention by making the reader think about capital punishment, not just in passing but in all its aspects.
The author, Steve Thayer, did write a sequel, but it came nowhere near measuring up to the first book.
But the story became more than the usual mystery, when it continued beyond the capture. There was a graphic scene of an execution gone wrong--and a question posed: what if the wrong man were put to death? This stretched convention by making the reader think about capital punishment, not just in passing but in all its aspects.
The author, Steve Thayer, did write a sequel, but it came nowhere near measuring up to the first book.
November 27, 2022
This book is so clearly written in the early 90s. The terrible depiction of women, the gruff men who have gruff feelings from the war, and the “new” technology of computers used to forecast the weather and stream the news. But, the story started to grow on me and I couldn’t put it down. And it takes place in Minnesota/Minneapolis and it captures how weather-obsessed we are and how much pride we have about our state plus so many distinct places were called out that this was fun just to follow along.
December 22, 2021
The dedication is fabulous! "You can't be a really good writer unless you had crazy parents." :)
"Whenever you're feeling sorry for yourself, whenever your hurt and frustration start to get the best of you, you just gotta say, 'Just stop it'" (44).
I enjoyed this book. Parts were believable; parts were not. There were some surprises; there were also moments of, "I saw that coming!"
A good read...nothing spectacular...but a fine read...
"Whenever you're feeling sorry for yourself, whenever your hurt and frustration start to get the best of you, you just gotta say, 'Just stop it'" (44).
I enjoyed this book. Parts were believable; parts were not. There were some surprises; there were also moments of, "I saw that coming!"
A good read...nothing spectacular...but a fine read...
January 19, 2010
Being from Minnesota, I enjoy reading Minnesota authors. Steve Thayer is from Minnesota and this book takes place in the Twin Cities. I like this book, but wasn't satisfied with the ending. Something was missing from it, in my opinion.
November 17, 2008
only redeeming value to this mystery is that it is set in Minnesota and the author knows his stuff regarding the metro area and the weather. I enjoyed being able to visualize the area I grew up in
January 2, 2010
A dark,thrilling serial killer novel.Read this, then read his follow up to it, "Silent Snow". Both are quite good.
December 31, 2014
A great story that I found to be solid in character, location, storyline, and plot driven written.
September 28, 2012
Un giallo di alta qualità: trama avvincente e personaggi indimenticabili.
March 12, 2008
it's hard not to like this book, when the main character is news anchor, Andrea Labore. :)
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November 30, 2019This book grabbed me from the first page and never let go. Thayer sure did his homework on life in a TV newsroom and meteorology, even weather and everyday life in Minnesota. He got it all correct. That's important to me, because nothing will jolt me out of the story faster than reading something I know is just not accurate. I really appreciated his great research, crackling dialogue and the ability to create and SUSTAIN (a tough thing!) a myriad of really different characters who are fully fleshed-out and, in one way or another, relatable if not always likable.
If you like weather, this is one of the few novels I've read that actually gets it right. And there's enough of it throughout the whole book that you don't get bored.
The plot just trucked along, and Thayer throws in enough red herrings to leave you really, truly thinking you know who did the murders...but you never really do until the very last part of the last chapter. Just a masterful piece of writing on a damn good story.
If you like weather, this is one of the few novels I've read that actually gets it right. And there's enough of it throughout the whole book that you don't get bored.
The plot just trucked along, and Thayer throws in enough red herrings to leave you really, truly thinking you know who did the murders...but you never really do until the very last part of the last chapter. Just a masterful piece of writing on a damn good story.
June 22, 2020
This book had so much promise in the beginning. Throughout the book there was a wealth of weather related details. As I'm a weather nut, I enjoyed that. Though, if you're not really interested in that, you may find that overdone. The story pans over a couple of years. At the turn of each season, and coinciding with an extreme weather event, a tornado, a heatwave, a blizzard, a woman is found dead. Suspicion falls on a local weatherman, who has a unique talent for reading the weather and picking up on things other meteorologists might miss.
The trouble is the three characters the story centers around just aren't likeable. And the story starts to sag. To be fair, the first half of the book was decent. It was the second half that dragged The overall feel of the book down. You go through a long drawn out trial. The story ends on a real downer. I won't go into specifics because I don't want to spoil the plot. I gave 2 stars for that opening half but part of me just wants to rate The book a 1 star. I just couldn't wait to finish!
The trouble is the three characters the story centers around just aren't likeable. And the story starts to sag. To be fair, the first half of the book was decent. It was the second half that dragged The overall feel of the book down. You go through a long drawn out trial. The story ends on a real downer. I won't go into specifics because I don't want to spoil the plot. I gave 2 stars for that opening half but part of me just wants to rate The book a 1 star. I just couldn't wait to finish!
September 20, 2020
This one was recommended to me by an old friend who is not an avid reader. The opening scene, with the tornado destroying parts of metropolitan Minneapolis and St. Paul was the best part of the book, but it is challenging to keep up that level of suspense from cover to cover. Most of the remaining plot centered around the inner-workings of a career in local news television and how it is not as glamorous or lucrative as most people imagine it to be.
The theme seemed to be a dramatization of how some people are never the same after being spurned by a love interest, and that exact scenario played out with no fewer than 3 of the characters in this story. One moved on to a successful career and love, one was given a second chance at life and love, and the other devoted the remainder of their living days to destroying the lives of others.
The theme seemed to be a dramatization of how some people are never the same after being spurned by a love interest, and that exact scenario played out with no fewer than 3 of the characters in this story. One moved on to a successful career and love, one was given a second chance at life and love, and the other devoted the remainder of their living days to destroying the lives of others.
May 24, 2020
I picked this book up in a laundry room at an RV resort where I stayed last year. I'm a total weather freak, and at the time I was bored, so I thought I'd give it a try. Boy, am I glad I did. It's a murder mystery, and I'm not usually a fan of the genre. But this one is so well-researched and engagingly written, you'd almost have to try not to like it. It was a particular delight for me personally because the author clearly knows his meteorology, and the setting was a place in Minnesota with which I'm familiar. But you don't need to love either of these things. If you like a story the clips along without sagging, has complex and believable characters, and a plot that leaves you guessing till the very last page, this one's for you.
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