Deb Erika is just plain Thrilled!

poster from IMBd

When we Debs asked you all, our very dear readers, to suggest a theme for this week, the fearless Missy Olive met the challenge with the idea of thrillers, ie legal, medical, etc. (Deb Linda, as you may have heard, had a suggestion of her own for half-naked men.*)

Now I for one love thrillers. I loved SIX DAYS OF THE CONDOR by James Grady (as well as the movie starring Robert Redford and a slightly shorter timeframe: Three Days of the Condor) and when it comes time to pick a genre from Netflix’s ever shrinking changing download catalog, I always click Thrillers first. Well, unless it’s for the girls in which case we cut straight to it and do a search for Scooby Doo (which is, now that I think of it, a cartoon thriller!).

In fact, I love thrillers so much that I even wrote one once upon a time. No, it wasn’t a John Grisham legal thriller (my brother hadn’t finished law school yet. If he had, well…). No, it was actually a medical thriller. Better yet, a bio-thriller. (I’m married to a developmental biologist. I mean, really. It was only a matter of time.) It was called THE ACADEMY and tackled the subject of genetic engineering at…wait for it…a boarding school! Eeeek! Are you thrilled yet?! Don’t worry; agents and editors weren’t either. It was a great learning experience and a heck of a lot of fun to write, but let’s just say Tess Gerritsen doesn’t have to look over her shoulder any time soon.

So what is it about thrillers that gets me?

It’s the whole package! I love the pacing, I love the set-up, I love the twist ending (even when I guess it), and I love the escape. The opportunity for drama is always high (one might even say overwrought and gratuitous—what’s not to love about that?!) and they are often structured like movies (cliff-hanger chapter endings, heavy on the zippy dialogue, etc) which makes them as addictive as a box of Fiddle Faddle.

*As you can plainly see from the movie poster above, I very cleverly filled my quota with the required half-naked man mention. And Robert Redford, no less. You’re welcome.

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Now your turn, friends. Do thrillers thrill you? If yes, what’s your preferred thriller subject? And any favorite titles too, while we’re at it!

 

20 Replies to “Deb Erika is just plain Thrilled!”

  1. Good morning. I love how I can learn about new books from my own books on Amazon – when they tell you what books others are buying in addition to your own. I know David Lender through the autism community – his book Vaccine Nation was the #1 legal thriller on Amazon downloads – it’s #15 now. I love medical style thrillers like David and Robin Cook. http://www.amazon.com/Vaccine-Nation-ebook/dp/B005Z23TYW/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_i And David was a huge help to me for launching my novel on Amazon. He’s been invited to speak to writers around the country about the process of creating and marketing ebooks.

    1. Good morning, Kim! Oh, I’m a big fan of medical thrillers too–and Robin Cook. I remember the cover of COMA from my days of scouring the pulpy “adult” paperbacks in our town library as a kid. Then I got to read it and see the movie and lo, I was hooked! Crichton’s work also fascinates me because he blended subject matter–sometimes includes sci-fi, but always with an emphasis on his medical background. I’m definitely going to check out David’s book–thanks so much for the tip!

  2. I love thrillers, too, for exactly the reasons you list. They are fun and exciting reads, plain and simple. Great escapism.

    One quibble with your post: how do we know Robert Redford is truly half naked in that pic? We only see the top quarter of him (at most), and that from the back! Still, it’s a nice back, and it IS Robert Redford, so I’ll forgive you. But we’re going to have to work on your innate modesty. 😉

    1. Have you seen this flick, Linda? It’s one of my guilty pleasures. Besides the obvious of having Robert Redford as the star, my feminist core is challenged because frankly his “hostage” takeover of Faye Dunaway is so damn sexy, I feel as if I’m setting my gender back a hundred years. But seriously, it’s HAWT stuff. (Still concerned about my modesty? 😉 )

      1. Hey, there’s a huge difference between fantasy and reality. Okay, your Immodesty Cred is back on track. 😉

        I HAVE seen 3 Days of the Condor, but not for ages. I’ll have to put it in my streaming queue and see how it holds up.

  3. See, the more I think about it, the more I realize I do like thriller movies, so of course I would like thriller books. Yeah, I’m so going to give them a try. Thanks Missy Olive for making it happen.
    And I’ve never seen 3 Days of the Condor, but it sure looks like it’s right up my alley.

    1. I think you’d like it, Joanne. It may be a bit dated–okay, it’s a LOT dated–but it’s still got a great set-up and hook and tension-factor, and oh yeah, Robert Redford…

  4. It looks like I need to add another book to my “to read” shelf.

    I also love the pacing, the twisting, the set-up.

    I have a love-hate relationship with thrillers. I love them but then I hate how they put a knot in my stomach. I just watched the thriller about the author, Limitless. I’m kicking myself that I didn’t read it first.

  5. There’s something so — I don’t know, primal? — about the good guy racing the bad guy in an effort to save the world, whatever that world may be. I actually prefer thrillers that are local and not that political. International espionage stories don’t grab me, for example. By local I mean the world to be saved is related to the hero’s deepest wound. Say her daughter has been kidnapped, or there’s a background secret that requires her to face her demons. That kind of thing…

    Or, and here’s the funny thing: I actually didn’t mind THE DAVINCI CODE, but that’s because I like puzzles that are inspired by history. Let’s face it, the Catholic Church is one creepy entity! 🙂

    I like ’em atmospheric, even a little gothic. There’s just so much to choose from out there!

    1. Hi, Lisa! It’s so true–there are so many choices/sub genres for thrillers and so many great authors writing them! I too like the everyday-hero thriller. I have always had a soft spot for the Regular-Joe-gets-caught-up-in-a-mystery plot. Sort of like Johnny Depp’s movie TIME AFTER TIME.

  6. Given that you are a women’s fiction author, I would not have pegged you as a thriller fanatic! You never cease to amaze (and the story of your bio-thriller explains it all). MY prerequisite for a movie: please make me cry so that I can leave the theatre looking like my eyes and lips have had an allergic reaction to shellfish. 😉 That has happened on occasions too many to count.

    1. Oh, Melissa, I like the tear-jerkers too! We’ll have to compare those lists at some point, you and I. I suspect they might look very similar. And I love that “looking like my eyes and lips have had an allergic reaction to shellfish”–so brilliant!!

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