Thriller: Stories To Keep You Up All Night

Starred review from April 3, 2006
The blurry line between mysteries and thrillers gets even fuzzier in this outstanding anthology of 32 new stories by such top genre names as Lee Child, James Grippando, Denise Hamilton and David Morrell. Patterson, in his introduction, talks about the "intensity of emotions" that thrillers share—as well as "the force with which they hurtle the reader along." This description fits such fine efforts as Gayle Lynds's "The Hunt for Dmitri," which takes the heroine of The Coil
, Liz Sansborough, into an adventure involving her father, the infamous CIA assassin known as the Carnivore. But other extremely readable stories, like Alex Kava's "Goodnight, Sweet Mother," would qualify as straight mystery. Readers who favor one category or another may at first be a bit baffled, but lovers of crime fiction in general and well-told action tales in particular will be well rewarded. Would-be thriller writers can learn a lot about research and technique from Patterson's introductions to each story. Many of the contributors will be attending the first International Thriller Writers convention in Phoenix in June.

August 7, 2006
Editor Patterson and the 32 writers who signed up for this breakthrough collection are all donating their royalties to the new International Thriller Writers, which had its first convention in June 2006 in Arizona. They plan, no doubt, to be rewarded for their work with extra fame and future fortune. But hopefully the eight excellent readers who bring the audio version to a generally high quality of life got paid for their efforts, because they are otherwise unrewarded and virtually anonymous. Aside from a listing of their names on the CD box, there's no mention anywhere of who reads what. Despite the lack of publicity, these actors do a fine job, adding an extra ingredient to the best stories in the collection—pieces by Gayle Lynds; her sadly late husband, Dennis Lynds; J.A. Konrath; Raelynn Hillhouse; David Morrell; M. Diane Vogt; and M.J. Rose are especially strong—and even bringing some of the lesser stories up a rung on the excitement ladder. Thriller addicts who'd rather listen than read will find solid value for time and money spent, and wannabe crime fiction writers will learn a lot from Patterson's lively introductions. Simultaneous release with the Mira hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 3).