For relaxation, I read thrillers, thrillers and more thrillers. But I’m fussy about what I select. I don’t care for stories that have detectives or agents as the main characters and I’ve found legal thrillers, for the most part, a bit tedious. My attention wanes after just a few courtroom scenes. The ones I like the best have ordinary people as the heroes and heroines.
One of my all-time favorite authors in my particular genre has to be Kevin O’Brien who lives in Seattle. Because he talks about places I’m familiar with in his books, it’s not hard to visualize where a scene takes place and that makes the book that much more fun for me.
I keep track of what I read in a Word document. This is what I said about “Vicious,” which I gave five stars: A thriller that kept me enthralled, one that I couldn’t wait to get back to reading and one that surprised me.
And “Final Breath,” which I also gave 5 stars and believe me, I’m very stingy with this perfect rating: I wanted to be reading this all the time and not taking care of my responsibilities. A reporter and her son are stalked and “heroes” from her stories murdered. The body count was a little high, but the story moved right alone. A high octane thriller at its best.
Now, I’m ensconced in his latest “Disturbed,” and I’d really like to go read instead of work, just like with the others.
If you like thrillers, give O’Brien a try.