Literature for Life: Thrillers

{Originally appeared in Man of the Hour Magazine on September 3rd, 2014}

The summer is over, and soon the leaves will fall, the wind will chill, and young men will sit by their windows.  Will the air of summer the season return again like it did before, or will it take those frivolous affairs crystalized in summer heat and the light of fireflies, untouched by the real world, away with it forever?. At least we can always open a book and find something else. Like murder. And explosions. And guns. And cool stuff. The thriller novel has always been a great means of distraction, keeping readers on the edge of their seats and minds off of misery. So distract yourself from the downward swing of the season with these four pulse-pounders.

Strange Shores by Arnaldur Indridason Lit lovers can’t help fawning over Icelandic novelist Arnaldur Indrioason, and for good reason: His long running series of novels following Detective Erlendur have netted him numerous prizes and possess some of the most inventive twists since a girl got a dragon tattoo. The newest English translation installment to the series packs a massive punch and leaves the reader desperately hungry for more.

Personal by Lee Child True, most people only know Jack Reacher as an under-performing Tom Cruise movie, but the Jack Bauer/James Bond blend has been kicking ass and taking names all the way to the bank, and the latest book, which pits Reacher against a stealthy assassin fleeing through France and England, is a taut, tense chase along a razor’s edge.

The Eye of Heaven by Clive Cussler Master adventure writer Clive Cussler has set Dirk Pitt aside in favor of husband and wife team Sami and Remi Fargo, whose newest adventure finds them stumbling upon a frozen Viking ship full of Mexican artifacts that sends the adventurers off on a mystery neither can resist- and neither can the reader.

Black Skies by Leo J. Maloney To be fair, Black Skies isn’t the most intricate or even the most plausible of thrillers, more in line with Homeland season 3 than season 1. But when you’re offered a book where the Secretary of State is abducted, and America’s last hope is two CIA vets named Cobra and Cougar, you don’t turn something like that down. You just don’t.