This is NOT a book review site, blah, blah, blah...
Just put down Nelson DeMille's latest, 'Wildfire'. It's kept me up well past midnight these three nights running so in a sense I'm glad to be done. On the other hand, knowing there'll be another 1 or 2 year wait for his next book has me in the dumps.
Mr. DeMille has featured hero, John Corey, in his last four books and as a general rule, I don't enjoy carry-over characters if they've appeared in two or more books. This poses two problems for me: 1 - I hate starting in the middle, so if I know a character has been around for awhile, I won't pick up the 'latest' until I've read the author's previous works - as I did with Anita Blake, Laurell K Hamilton's main heroine, and 2 - if I did, perchance, start in the middle, I find the author's references to previous cases and situations distracting.
Here's the thing: I love John Corey. He's about as alpha as a male can be, but because it's written in the first person, most of his macho, bad-boy attitude is in his head. And his sarcastic wit would make Hugh Laurie's 'House' proud.
Back to the book. Remember the Cold War mentality: if they send nukes our way, we'll launch ours too, so we're both destroyed? Well, this latest caper concerns a US government iniative called Wildfire and basically states that if Islamic fundamentalists blow up a US city, the US gov't will retaliate by sending nuclear warheads towards every muslim country across the ocean. This ensures that the muslim countries police each other and keep their terrorists in check. Interesting premise. Is it true? John Corey, a member of the Anti-Terrorist Task Force has to stop an American billionaire before he ... OOPS! I can't go any farther because A) I would spoil the twisted plot and B) this is not a book review site!
I'm not one normally consumed with conspiracy theories (well, not really), but Mr. DeMille weaves so much fact into his fiction that one often wonders where the line really is. He does an incredible amount of research for all of his books making them all seem plausible, if not down right scary.
Read this book. No, wait. Read 'Plum Island', 'Lion's Game', 'Night Fall', then this book :)
10 comments:
Sounds like a great book! Thanks for the recommendation. I've only read one Nelson DeMille novel -- Cathedral -- and it was excellent. Gotta read some more of 'em!
Hey TL -
I've read them all, and though I enjoyed Cathedral, it wasn't my fave. You should give Plum Island and Lion's Game a try.
Actually, bad me, never heard of this author until now. Guess I have some catching up to do if I have to read all those others first. It'll have to wait, I'm reading "Story" by Robert McKee, and I just finished the latest Aisling Grey Novel by Katie MacAlister. I'll put those on my TBR list.
Hi Amy -
Did you see the movie 'The General's Daughter' with John Travolta? That was a Nelson DeMille book; probably his best, and a good place to start if you like action thrillers with smart wise-ass heroes.
No I haven't but we do own it. My husband watches it at night after I go to bed, perhaps I shall watch it as it's readily available.
The movie was good - but the book was better. Isn't that how it usually goes?
Yes, always it seems. Just ask my Dad about "Starship Troopers" he's a huge insane Heinlein fan so he was majorally ticked when they butchered the book in that pathetic movie.
Wylie, many apologies for having to comment anonymously -- since I switched over to the new Beta Blogger, I can no longer comment as Thomma Lyn on blogs that are on the old version of Blogger. Dang!! I hope they fix this soon. I don't like commenting anonymously, but it's me, TL, I promise! :)))
Anyhow, thanks for the recommendations re: Nelson DeMille novels! Gonna put both Plum Island and Lion's Game on my to-read list.
Thanks for the recommendations, Wylie! Gonna put both Plum Island and Lion's Game on my to-read list.
Ack, Wylie -- sorry for my anonymous comment-hiccups there!
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