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Reading Rescue, March 2008:
Thrillers to Liven Up the End of Winter
 By Anne Allen and Mary Anne Fulmer
An American airliner falls from the sky; a senator's son is
kidnapped; an assassination attempt is made on a presidential candidate.
The Reading Rescuers (no boring books here!) are back with a selection
of thrillers to liven up the end of winter and keep you earning raffle
tickets as the Adult Winter Reading Program winds down.
A few years ago we had to stop bringing home thrillers written by
Nelson DeMille because a certain Reading Rescue Husband would grab the
books and stay up all night to read them. Recently, we checked some out
again and that was a good decision, even though RRH still stayed up late
to read them. In The Lion's Game, John Corey, newly assigned to the
Anti-Terrorist Task Force, is sent to Kennedy Airport to take custody of
a Libyan defector. The plane carrying Asad Khalil, AKA the Lion, has
been out of radio contact for 2 hours by the time it lands, and Corey,
with partner Kate Mayfield, is one of the first to board. The discovery
of a planeload of corpses sends Corey off on a hunt for a terrorist bent
on bloody vengeance. DeMille knows how to ratchet up the suspense as
Corey tries to discover what drives the Lion and where he'll go next.
Night fall finds Corey and new wife Kate attending a memorial service
for the victims of TWA flight 800, the plane that crashed off the coast
of Long Island. Kate's uncertainty about the official findings spurs
John to begin his own investigation, and DeMille is masterly at
portraying Corey's hunt for the truth, even as his superiors try to shut
him down.
In Caught in the Light by Robert Goddard, free-lance photographer Ian
Jarrett unexpectedly receives an assignment to photograph Vienna in
winter. While working on a snowy morning, a woman wearing a red coat
steps into his viewfinder and Ian knows he has the picture of a
lifetime. He and Marian are attracted to each other and begin a
passionate love affair, agreeing to leave their spouses and meet after
they both return to England. After Marian fails to arrive at the
appointed place, Ian discovers all his photos have been destroyed. His
life in a shambles, with no job and a wife who is divorcing him, he
begins a search for a woman who hasn't even told him her real name.
Goddard tells an intricate story that will keep you guessing until the
end.
It is 1938 and Nicholas Morath, a former Hungarian Army officer,
enjoys his life in Paris. He is part owner of a small advertising
agency, has a young and wealthy South American girlfriend, and his
uncle, Count Janos Polanyi, is a diplomat attached to the Hungarian
legation there. In Kingdom of Shadows by Alan Furst, as Nicholas runs
errands and performs services for his uncle, both he and the reader are
slowly drawn into Janos' clandestine operations against Hitler and the
Third Reich. Furst has made a specialty of writing sophisticated novels
of suspense set during the Second World War and this is a winner, with
sympathetic characters, desperate missions, and an unusual Hungarian
viewpoint.
As presidential candidate Josh Alexander and his running mate Mark
Ross are driving away from a campaign appearance, a bomb goes off,
killing Mrs. Alexander. A wave of sympathy propels Alexander to victory
in the election, and as the inaugural draws near the pressure is on to
solve the case. In Act of Treason by Vince Flynn, CIA bad boy Mitch Rapp
is called in and brings his brand of mayhem (kidnapping, blackmailing,
computer hacking) to the party. Flynn raises some serious points about
the use of force to get information, but mostly this is a fun ride with
stops in Cyprus and Geneva, and a thrilling conclusion in the Oval
Office of the White House.
In Bonnie MacDougal’s legal thriller, Out of Order, Campbell Smith
is driving to a party when she spots a group of teenagers vandalizing
mailboxes. Recognizing one of the boys as her host's son, Cam hesitates
to phone the police, especially when she sees a man using a cell phone
nearby. After it becomes clear that Trey Ramsey has been kidnapped, his
parents hire her to try to track him down, and Cam is pulled into a web
of lies, deceit, murder, and treason. As she digs deeper, she realizes
everyone lies and everyone has a secret to hide, including herself.
MacDougal, a former attorney, has a nice touch with the legal and
political issues and she also makes good use of her novel's Philadelphia
and Delaware settings.
Volunteer and Friends of the Library President Marie Burns was
recently honored as a Community Champion. Along with a notice in the
Post-Gazette, she was given a certificate and celebrated at the
Jefferson Awards gala held at the Carnegie. Congratulations, Marie!
There's still time to bring donations for the Friends of the Library
used book sale, scheduled to begin April 23. As always, please send
questions or comments to mfulmer@pennlib.org or phone 724-744-4414.
See you in the library!
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