Archives for June 2014

The Hunter and The Outfit, Richard Stark’s Thriller Novels

June 27, 2014 by William F. Brown

The Hunter and The Outfit were written by Donald E. Westlake, who was one of the most amazing and perhaps least known American writers of the 20th Century. As unbelievable as it sounds, he was the author of over 100 thriller novels, screenplays, and short story collections written under 14 pen names, both male and female, and his books have been made into 24 movies prior to his death six years ago. I suspect all the pen names are one reason for his relative anonymity compared to dozens of less talented writers with far fewer writing credits. I’m sure he cried all the way to the bank. That said, Westlake was best known for two utterly different series of crime novels. One is the thirteen

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‘Dortmunder’ novels — comic capers by a gang of dimwitted and always unlucky crooks. The best of these, and the best of his movies, are “The Hot Rock” and “The Bank Shot.” Read the books or rent the movie. You’ll die laughing. On the other hand, his second series is the 26 ‘Parker’ novels written under the name Richard Stark. ‘Stark’ is also a pretty good description of the lead character, the stories, and the writing. They are well beyond noir. Parker is a brutal, remorseless killer and the stories about him, such as “The Hunter,” the first of them, and “The Outfit,” the third, usually deal with violent crime and revenge. Parker doesn’t believe in ‘proportional response.’ When crossed, he kills everyone in sight and “lets God sort it out;” or he would if he believed in anything except money, which he doesn’t. Unlike Dortmunder, who has many redeeming character traits and is impossible to dislike, Parker has none, zero. No character arc, no quirky habits, no funny sidekick. He is a loner and a humorless killing machine. Some people refer to Parker as the prototypical ‘anti-hero’, but even they must have at least one redeeming, sympathetic character trait, and Parker has none. Hence, my dilemma. I loved Westlake’s other books; and then I read “The Outfit,” and I hated it. However, all the literary critics and Hollywood-types love the Parker character, the dramatic plots, and the technical stuff, so I figured I must be a dolt and missed something. To give it another chance, I read “The Hunter.” Same result. I didn’t like it either. The best comparisons I can draw are to some of the early 87th Precinct hriller novels by Ed McBain or a couple of less-successful Elmore Leonard novels, but maybe I just don’t ‘get’ it. Read them yourself and see what you think.

William F. Brown is the author of 5 suspense novels with over 300 Five-Star Reviews: The Undertaker, Amongst My Enemies, Thursday at Noon, Winner Take All, and now Aim True, My Brothers available on Kindle and Audible Audio Books. You can read about them at billbrownwritesnovels.wordpress.com

The Colonel’s Mistake by Dan Mayland – Book Review

June 25, 2014 by William F. Brown

The Colonel’s Mistake by Dan Mayland , is the first book in a three book series featuring Mark Sava, the aging, low key, former CIA Station Chief in Azerbaijan in former Soviet Central Asia. You can’t get much more backwater than that. Sava has stayed on as a consultant living in Baku, the country’s hot, dusty, corrupt capital. He gets dragged into a friend’s kidnapping, an attempted coup in Iran, and a proposed Chinese oil pipeline. Think George Smiley, not James Bond or Mitch Rapp. Like the rest of the countries in that area,

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by William F. Brown

Azerbaijan has become a pawn in the 21st Century version of “the Great Game” of oil, international politics, intrigue, corruption, and espionage between Russia, Iran, China, and the US. With twists, flips, and turns, that is the real life screen upon which Mayland’s The Colonel’s Mistake thriller novel project. I have no doubt that his complex, seamy, and corrupt picture of the region is spot on, as I have no doubt that our current State Department wizards don’t begin understand any of it. Too bad the wizards in Washington never read history or even Rudyard Kipling. Any of that could have kept us out of a number of recent wars from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Series books are very much in vogue these days. which makes a book review difficult. I usually dislike them, because I feel they all-too-often cheat the reader. To me, a story should be distinct and complete from cover to cover and not simply a teaser to get the reader to buy yet another book. I don’t know how the next books in Mayland’s series will work out, but after The Colonel’s Mistake, I intend to read more of them.

Silence of the Lambs – From Novel to Screenplay to Movie

June 24, 2014 by William F. Brown

The suspense thriller Silence of the Lambs — whether you look at the novel written by Thomas Harris in 1988, the working screenplay and storybook by Ted Tally from 1990, the resulting movie directed by Jonathan Demme in 1991, or the magical performances of its lead actors, all of those pieces come together to make “Silence of the Lambs,” the movie, an American suspense thriller classic. While most of fans simply enjoy watching it, it is interesting to see where the genius came from. Very few novels ever make good screenplays, and I feel the

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better the book the harder it is. A novel is largely about what people think, while a movie is about what they do. Reading thru this novel and screenplay, 95% of the screenplay comes from the novel, to Harris’ credit; but Talley left large chunks of the novel out of the screenplay and Demme left chunks of the screenplay on the cutting room floor, because a gesture or a quick camera shot can convey many pages of text. The trick, is to show all that thinking and back story through action, motion, gestures, and inflection. I have adapted three of my own suspense thriller movels into screenplays, keeping it tight is easier said than done. In this case, a 352 page hardback novel was adapted into a 120 page screenplay, and an even tighter, superbly edited movie of only 118 minutes. The screenplay and movie stay very true to the plot and characters which Harris wrote. However, both Tally and Deme made a number of small, but very magical additions. The best is the final scene at a small Caribbean airport where Lecter watches his nemesis, Dr. Chilton arrive, while Lecter is on the phone congratulating Clarice Starling for graduating from the FBI Academy. As Lecter hangs up and begins following Chilton up the street, we all know what he plans to have for dinner. The novel ends with Lecter writing Starling a congratulatory note which tells her he will not come after her, because the world is a better place with her in it. Tally’s screenplay has the airport scene with Chilton and Lecter saying these things to Starling over the phone, but the scene is at night. When Demme films Silence of the Lambs, he has the scene in broad daylight so we can see the nervous panic on Chilton and the glint of coming revenge in Lecter’s eyes. That stroke of brilliance gives the movie viewer one more chill up his spine before the final credits. When you read the working screenplay while watching the movie, you can see many, many more examples where Tally tightened and added to the novel, and where Demme made further cuts and added some wonderful touches. You can see more of Demme’s Silence of the Lambs brilliance in the story boards he sketched to show the feel he wanted in certain scenes. While praising Harris, Tally, and Demme for their genius, it is impossible to ignore what Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, and Ted Levine brought to their characters. In his introductory scene, Hopkins is able to scare the hell out of us by just standing still and looking out through the bars of his cell, absolutely deadpan, while Foster uses accent, mannerisms, and phrasing to create a memorable character of a backwoods country girl. One could cite dozens of other examples in the writing, directing, and acting; but in the end, what makes it a great suspense thriller, one of the very best ever made is that all of those pieces came together in 118 minutes of film. I would also cite “Day Of the Jackal,” in 1971, “The Eagle Has Landed,” in 1975, and “Eye of the Needle,” in 1978 as excellent adaptations of very good thriller novels. The resulting films have stood the test of time, which proves that a great suspense thriller can be made without a single ‘blue screen,’ computer-generated special effect, or other gimmick. Imagine that!

William F. Brown is the author of 5 suspense thriller novels with over 300 Five-Star Reviews: The Undertaker, Amongst My Enemies, Thursday at Noon, Winner Take All, and now Aim True, My Brothers. They are all available on Kindle and now on Audible Audio Books. You read about them at billbrownwritesnovels.wordpress.com

Book Review – Flowers From Berlin – Noel Hynd – Thriller Novels

June 22, 2014 by William F. Brown

“Flowers From Berlin” by Noel Hynd was first published in hardback 1985. Kindle released the “25^th Anniversary Edition” last year, and while I don’t quite understand Amazon math, like “Day Of the Jackal,” in 1971, “The Eagle Has Landed,” in 1975, and “Eye of the Needle,” in 1978,” it remains one of the standards of suspense/ espionage fiction. Unlike so many ‘series’ novels, Flowers from Berlin is a very good, self-contained,

standalone story. It has stood the test of time, and deserves to be reread. The story takes place in 1939, on the eve of World War II. Nazi Germany is brash and self-confident. The West, including the US, is confused and indecisive. Isolationist sentiment is on the rise, and Roosevelt’s popularity is at a low. Seeing an opportunity, Hitler dispatches his top agent to the US on a mission of sabotage and espionage, which evolves into an attempt to kill the president. In Flowers From Berlin, determined to stop him is a maverick FBI agent, William Cochrane. Like its three predecessors listed above, the chase is on. Is Flowers from Berlin as good as them? Close, but not quite. Those books did have the advantage of excellent movies which succeeded the books, helping to create vivid images, but in “The Eagle Has Landed,” Jack Higgins’ actually has us rooting for a German assassin trying to kill Winston Churchill. That is impossible to top. “Day of the Jackal” features a tedious French detective, a ticking clock, and a heart stopping ending. “Eye of the Needle” is most similar to “Flowers from Berlin,” but within even creepier bad guy, played so brilliantly by Donald Sutherland in the movie. All in all though, “Flowers From Berlin” remains a genre classic that deserves to be reread. Best of all, unlike so many of today’s suspense novels, it is not, “A William Cochrane Novel Book #6.” Too many writers think that readers just won’t go for a good standalone story with its own unique, memorable characters. Take one look at my “Favorite 4” above, and you’ll see how long that is. It is also worth noting that all four authors have written many other stories, all set in different times and places, and all equally entertaining.

William F. Brown is the author of 5 suspense novels with over 300 Five-Star Reviews: The Undertaker, Amongst My Enemies, Thursday at Noon, Winner Take All, and now Aim True, My Brothers. They are all available on Kindle and now on Audible Audio Books. You read about them at billbrownwritesnovels.wordpress.com

Book Review – “First To Kill” by Peterson – Action Adventure

June 20, 2014 by William F. Brown

“First to Kill” is the first book in what is now a four book series of action adventure thriller novels from Andrew Peterson featuring the lead character, Nathan McBride. He is a cerebral CIA Special Ops contractor and ex-Marine sniper who is still healing from an earlier mission that went badly wrong. McBride gets called out to help the FBI track down the grandson of a retired FBI director who has gone missing on an undercover assignment

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to penetrate a radical white supremacist, arms smuggling group. Series books are very much in vogue these days. I usually dislike them, because I feel they all-too-often cheat the reader. To me, a story should be distinct and complete from cover to cover and not simply a teaser to get the reader to buy yet another book. I don’t know how the next three books in this action adventure series will work out, but First to Kill is a crackling good action-adventure story. Peterson does a very good job on the two main criteria to achieve that ─ he has created a unique, compelling main character, and an excellent, twisting and turning story line. In Nathan McBride, we have a thoughtful, quiet, and very lethal ex-Marine who thinks before he acts. Four a change ─ unlike Mitch Rapp, Scot Horvath, or a long list of others ─ the bullets don’t bounce off this guy, or anyone else in the story. They get hit, they bleed, and the often die. First to Kill isn’t just another action adventure shoot-em up, it is good well-crafted fiction. I will read more of these, and so should you ─ great for the beach, pool, or long airplane ride.

William F. Brown is the author of 5 action adventure thriller novels of his own, with over 300 Five-Star Reviews: The Undertaker, Amongst My Enemies, Thursday at Noon, Winner Take All, and now Aim True, My Brothers. They are all available on Kindle and now on Audible Audio Books. You read about them at billbrownwritesnovels.wordpress.com

Book Review – “Deadly Stillwater” suspense fiction by Roger Stelljes

June 19, 2014 by William F. Brown

Deadly Stillwater is the third book of what is currently a five-book series of police, action-adventure suspense fiction set in St. Paul, Minnesota. No doubt, there will be more to come. Although series books are very much in vogue these days; I usually dislike them, because they all-too-often cheat the reader. I feel a story should be distinct and complete from cover to cover and not simply a teaser to get the reader to buy yet another book. By and large, Roger Stelljes’ excellent suspense fiction featuring

‘Mac’ McRyan and a cast of quirky St. Paul homicide detectives don’t do that. They are self-contained stories and you really don’t need to read them in sequence. While they are nominally cop stories, like Deadly Stillwater, Roger Stelljes they are much more action-adventure than police procedurals and fun reads. Think Mitch Rapp with a badge, shooting first and asking questions later. Because this series is set in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, they will always draw comparison to John Sandford’s highly successful “Prey” thriller novels. I think Stelljes’ books like “Deadly Stillwater” have considerably more action and running around (the characters are always running or racing somewhere), while Sandford’s have better suspense and character development, but both series are good reads. Roger Stelljes’ books are on Kindle, and you can frequently find them in the Kindle Countdown Sales. Pick one up, like “Deadly Stillwater.” They are great for the beach or a long airplane ride.

William F. Brown is the author of 5 suspense fiction novels with over 300 Five-Star Reviews: The Undertaker, Amongst My Enemies, Thursday at Noon, Winner Take All, and now Aim True, My Brothers. They are all available on Kindle and now on Audible Audio Books. You read about them and my other book reviews at my web site Billbrownwritesnovels.wordpress.com

AWOL on the Appalachian Trail – Book Review

June 18, 2014 by William F. Brown

5-Stars! “A Great Book about People Hiking the Appalachian Trail

If you were ever a Boy Scout, Girl Scout, or just like the outdoors, download a copy of AWOL on the Appalachian Trail. It is a fascinating chronology of doing a “through–hike.

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on the AT ─ the whole thing, all 2,172 miles of it, from Georgia to central Maine, for five months, up and down the rugged spine of the Appalachian Mountains, alone, in one very, very long hike. In my earlier days, I had the pleasure of hiking a number of short sections on the AT in Virginia shepherding various groups of Boy Scouts up and down the hills for several years, but there is no comparison of weekend hiking with an AT “through–hike.” To say that is a physical challenge is putting it mildly. It is physical, mental, medical and a touch of zen. None of that explains why David Miller quit his job, leave his wife and three young daughters to take on this five-month physical and spiritual challenge? Rain, pain, knee and ankle injuries, bears, snakes, and even the occasional moose really make you wonder. However, “through-hikers” are a small fraternity, and he introduces us to many memorable characters he meets along the way. It is a fascinating story and a great solo quest. Since his hike, Miller has set up an excellent website on the AT www.AwolOnTheTrail.com with maps, guidebooks, and advice on equipment.

While I came away from the book with great respect for anyone with the perseverance to take on a challenge like the AT, I am reminded of Stephen Ambrose’s most memorable book, Undaunted Courage about the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804-06. It is of the great adventures of all time, where 33 men spent 2 ½ years traveling 7700 miles from St. Louis to the Oregon coast with no maps, across the Rockies and Wasatch Mountains and back without losing the man. True, they were usually riding in boats and on horseback, but it is a phenomenal undertaking nonetheless. After you read AWOL On The Appalachian Trail, pick up Undaunted Courage.

William F. Brown is the author of 5 thriller novels with over 300 Five-Star Reviews: The Undertaker, Amongst My Enemies, Thursday at Noon, Winner Take All, and now Aim True, My Brothers. They are all available on Kindle and now on Audible Audio Books.