Thriller 2: Stories You Just Can't Put Down-Clive Cussler (editor)

Thriller 2: Stories You Just Can't Put Down
Clive Cussler (editor)
Mira, Jun 2009, $24.95
ISBN: 9780778327233

The twenty three tales included in this collection are for the most part excellent and timely. The anthology opens with Jeffery Deaver's "The Weapon" focusing on torture while Lisa Jackson’s “Vintage Death” contains several terrific thriller twists. “The Circle” by David Hewson will indirectly remind readers of the London bombings as a pregnant woman riding the tube hears a passenger mumbling "They will remember my name." Marcus Sakey's "The Desert Here and the Desert Far Away" examines how strong the bond the band of brothers forged in the battlefields of the Iraq War survives once everyone is stateside. Gary Braver's "Ghost Writer" was once a famous novelist, but now writes stories for other people to “author” as that pays better though leaves him depressed. Finally with Carla Neggers, Joan Johnston, Robert Ferrigno, Jon Land, R.L. Stine, and Lisa Jackson amongst others contributing, THRILLER 2 lives up to its subtitle of “stories you can’t put down”.

Harriet Klausner