It's tough to build a really good thriller. If you concentrate too much
on the technical stuff (thanks, Tom Clancy) you risk losing the folks
who could care less whether the villain was armed with an FN 5.7 pistol
carried in a Blackhawk Serpa holster or took out Air Force One with a
shoulder mounted FIM 92 Stinger manufactured by Raytheon in 1981. But if
you lean toward the gooey-kissy hop-into-bed-with-every-babe stuff,
you'll find many of your readers deserting in droves. What works for me
is when an author creates a good basic story by putting characters we've
come to care about into extreme jeopardy...keeps it suspenseful as
hell...and teaches us something along the way.
Paul McEuen mixes all of the
ingredients of a good story effortlessly into Spiral, his first novel.
The
plot is complex but boils down to: killer fungus that can wipe out
humanity sought by bad people who want to blackmail the U.S. and get
back at a really nasty Japanese businessman whose past includes World
War II atrocities. The author is a scientist and professor (and CIA
consultant)and it shows, but the cool thing is that he feeds us the
technical/scientific stuff in such a way that even the adamantly
non-geeks among us can understand and follow the intricacies. And he
manages the action sequences as smoothly as a SEAL taking out a cadre of
terrorists...putting the likeable good guys into peril that ramps up
with every chapter. Inject geo-political drama and bam! a book that
keeps its pacing on multiple levels.
One warning and it's sort of a
spoiler. There are a couple of torture scenes that are absolutely
terrifying, so much so that even I had to skip ahead (note to the
author: I think they went on a tad too long) before I got queasy. Think Hannibal Lecter in a
lab with some nano-gadgets small enough to put...well, you get the point.
But speaking of the villain, she's really, really awful. Not one of
those who have a little niceness to balance them out. Evil.
If you
love audio books, I recommend that format for your read. I found Spiral
because I've enjoyed narrator Rob Shapiro's other performances. He knows
how to remain in the background and allow the writer to be the star.
