Posts tagged with thrillers

May 13 2019

The Plotters, by Un-Su Kim

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I am a big fan of the John Wick movies. They're stylish, they're fast-paced, and the violence is so over-the-top it is essentially meaningless. It's like a ballet about a bloodbath. Sadly (for my movie-watching plans, not for the rest of my life), I have a one-year-old baby, so my chances of seeing John Wick 3 are pretty remote right now, but the fine people at Doubleday sent me a copy of Un-Su Kim's The Plotters, which checks a lot of the same boxes...

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May 13 2019

Weekly Book Giveaway: The Plotters, by Un-su Kim

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This week's Book Giveaway is The Plotters, an action-and-suspense thriller that is as far from this as humanly possible, while still being shelved in roughly the same section. A full review will follow shortly...

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Apr 8 2019

Weekly Book Giveaway: The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, by Dorothy Gilman

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This week's Book Giveaway is Dorothy Gilman's 1966 novel The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, arguably the platonic ideal of an airplane book (clever, amusing, and enjoyably far-fetched). A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 5/15/19...

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Mar 19 2019

Ah, hubris

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LaineyGossip recently posted a look at the filming of The Undoing, a new HBO series based on Jean Hanff Korelitz’s book You Should Have Known. The story sounds thematically similar...

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Mar 6 2019

Awkward!

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Wow, this guy sounds like he is an extremely messy human being: Ian Parker recently posted an in-depth investigation into the public persona of Dan Mallory, who, under the name A. J. Finn, wrote the best-selling thriller The Woman in the Window...

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Sep 19 2017

As long as the John Wick movies keep making money...

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The trailer is out for Red Sparrow, the movie adaptation of Jason Matthews's 2013 novel of the same name. The film will star Jennifer Lawrence, and while it frankly looks a little cheesy (and a lot like someone decided to take advantage of the popularity of Marvel's Black Widow character), I am...

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Jun 20 2017

John Wick, with all the style removed

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Maybe I spoke too soon on that "all the meh" title earlier: the trailer is out for the upcoming film adaptation of Vince Flynn's thriller American Assassin, and it looks resoundingly mediocre...

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Apr 20 2016

Possible soapy fun?

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The first trailer is out for the upcoming film adaptation of The Girl on the Train, the best-selling 2015 novel by author Paula Hawkins. It looks very melodramatic (and a bit like they really wanted to make Gone Girl 2: This Time She's British!), but...

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Jun 25 2015

No, thank you.

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My mother still hasn't recovered from seeing Gone Girl, so I'm sure she'll be thrilled to hear that there's another Gillian Flynn adaptation coming down the pike, and this one might be even grosser. The trailer is out for Dark Places...

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Jun 8 2015

Weekly Book Giveaway: Snow White Must Die, by Nele Neuhaus

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This week's Book Giveaway is the best-selling yet grim-looking German novel Snow White Must Die, written by Nele Neuhaus and translated by Steven Murray. I have no idea if I'll enjoy reading it, but I give the author massive props for choosing such an eye-catching and memorable title...

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Jan 26 2015

All Fall Down, by Ally Carter

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It pains me to say this, but All Fall Down is one of Ally Carter's weaker efforts. I have no doubt things will improve as the series progresses, but so far things are only fair-to-middling on... well, almost every front.

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Mar 18 2014

Weekly Book Giveaway: Season of the Witch, by Mariah Fredericks

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This week's Book Giveaway is Mariah Fredericks's Season of the Witch, which I'm told is a psychological thriller set in an exclusive New York prep school, not a supernatural romance. (I enjoy the way the cover art is purposefully vague, presumably in an effort to attract both audiences.) Our review will go up later today...

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Aug 29 2011

But can I really buy an twisted antihero named Pinkie?

Speaking of violent, gloomy movies, if you can't wait until March, last year's film adaptation of Graham Greene's Brighton Rock is finally popping up in various arthouse theaters:

I was under...

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Aug 19 2009

Too much money, too little sense

Y'know, I enjoyed the "missing bottles of Thomas Jefferson's wine" plotline in Ridley Pearson's Killer Summer, but I had no idea the storyline was based on an actual (alleged) hoax.

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Jun 12 2009

Shutter Island trailer's up

Check out the brand-new trailer for Shutter Island, based on Mystic River author Dennis Lehane's novel of the same name:Eh. It looks The Sixth Sense-y.

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May 27 2009

If the Witness Lied, by Caroline B. Cooney

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Caroline B. Cooney’s If the Witness Lied is a top-notch young adult thriller: suspenseful and atmospheric, with a solid line-up of appealingly flawed characters. If the Witness Lied is the story of...

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Oct 7 2008

Katherine Neville's The Eight rides again

Recently, I've been seeing copies of Katherine Neville's 1988 novel The Eight popping up in prime bookstore real estate (stacks on the misleadingly-named "new releases" table, free-standing displa...

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Jul 25 2008

The Amnesiac, by Sam Taylor

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When construction worker James Purdew, the protagonist of Sam Taylor’s ambitious psychological thriller The Amnesiac, breaks his leg in an accident, he spends his convalescence obsessing over the ...

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