Edited by David Morrell, Hank Wagner
Oceanview Publishing, $27.95, 378 pages
Which thrillers would you put on a must read list? Editors David Morrell and Hank Wagner made their task a bit easier by only considering books written before 2000. Picking the best early thriller was the challenge. In Thrillers: The 100 Must Reads, the editors took the suggestion of author Lee Child and began with his review of Theseus and the Minotaur (700 B.C). Current authors such as Denise Hamilton and John Lescroart provide lively essays focused on one of the 100 thrillers. For example, Lee Thomas tells readers why they should pick up a copy of Dean Koontz’s Watchers(1988). I was excited to see R.L. Stine’s work included because he was my favorite teen author. His book Silent Night (1991), reviewed by Jon Land, was one of the first teen thriller books I read and I was hooked! Stine’s review of P.G. Wodehouse’s Summer Lightening (1929) is unique because he tries to convince readers that this comedy is really a thriller. This is a great resource to use to expand your library and to find your next book. You’ll find some suggestions for old favorites but also some that you may never before have considered reading.
Reviewed by Elizabeth Franklin