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Meeting Harlan Coban’s Myron Bolitar For The First Time
Where has this book been all my life? On the bookshelf of your local store, just waiting to be read. We’ve Only Just Met After All This Time Harlan Coben has been writing professionally since 1990 but he really became famous for the Myron Bolitar series, starting in 1995. I’ve known about Coben for a long time. Multiple best-sellers every time he publishes a book. Multiple adaptations of his stories on TV. And, recently, the professor of a BBC Maestro online class that helps writers craft thrillers. I’m always game to learn—especially from an acknowledged veteran of the genre—so I bought the class. While listening to Coben talk in the…
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In James Patterson’s Blow Back, You’ll Believe a President Can Go Off the Rails
Can you really go wrong reading a novel with the name of James Patterson on the cover? For the second novel in my research into Grocery Store books, I selected a thriller by Patterson and Brendan DuBois, Blow Back. Say what you want about Patterson’s output, but the man knows a good story when he sees it, and he and his team can write remarkably good loglines. For this one, it’s: An American President goes Insane. It’s been quite awhile since I last read a political/military thriller, but what I got was what I expected: multiple POVs, multiple threads, all leading to a grand finale. This book delivered on all…