Thursday, November 26, 2009

Thriller Thursday

First, to all who have stepped away from the turkey to check in here, HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Yes, even though I'm from across the pond, I can appreciate a fine tradition such as this.

Second, and just to be ornery, I'm breaking from tradition with both of my book recs...

FICTION:

I'm going with MINE ALL MINE by Adam Davies. I bought this book while I was experimenting with writing a more light-hearted style myself, and this is a fantastic example of that. Still a crime novel, it's probably more of a crime "caper." So, not a thriller as such but I highly recommend it. Here's the plot synopsis, from Publisher's Weekly:

"a hilarious caper narrated by down-on-his-luck good guy Otto Starks. Having worked his entire life to become a top-notch pulse (highly specialized security guard), Otto falls from grace when several of the works of art under his watch are stolen by the Rat Burglar."

See, a caper. Dashed good one, too.


NON-FICTION:

The break with tradition in this category is that I've not read this book (yet): THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY by Erik Larson. However, I've had three people, totally independently, recommend it to me. People whose taste I trust, no less. So it's on my list, and maybe it should be on yours.

Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor in the city. Publisher's Weekly said: "This book is everything popular history should be, meticulously recreating a rich, pre-automobile America on the cusp of modernity, in which the sale of "articulated" corpses was a semi-respectable trade and serial killers could go well-nigh unnoticed." Can't wait, me.



2 comments:

  1. Incredible book, must read. Reads like a novel but is factual. Politics, murder, meyham, turn of the century life. You won't be able to put it down.

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  2. "The Devil in the White City" is absolutely fantastic. If you haven't had a chance read it yet, do so. Bump it to the front of the line.

    If I may, I would like to offer a recommendation for a future fiction book - "A Conspiracy of Paper" by David Liss.

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