Tag Archives: thriller

Verity by Colleen Hoover (2018) – BR00267 (R2025) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
April 29 2025

Plot or Premise

A struggling writer gets hired under somewhat odd circumstances to finish a popular series by another author who has become incapacitated. She moves into the house with the author, her husband, and child, and starts to develop feelings for the husband.

What I Liked and Didn’t Like

I confess upfront that I am not a giant fan of Colleen Hoover nor romance thrillers, but the premise of an author taking over a popular series was too intriguing to resist. I tend to skip the genre as I find too often that the “thriller” part strays too close to domestic violence porn even if you know the woman will win in the end.

I wasn’t wrong about the intrigue of Lowen Ashleigh taking over a writing series from Verity Crawford. When she’s in the writer’s realm, struggling with figuring out how to advance the series and tell a “Verity-style” story, the pages sing. It’s great. When she finds what appears to be a cross between an unpublished biography and a personal journal of Verity’s, Lowen’s story starts to morph into multiple strands of wanting to fill in for Verity, the person, not just the author.

I’m not big on romance unless it’s more two people working on something in a will they or won’t they style of romantic tension, while this one is more isolation together. And while I see Lowen’s morphing into caring about Jeremy (she’s reading about him in the journal), Jeremy spends very little time with Lowen, far too little to be falling deeply in love with her. Pretty unrealistic, in my view. However, their scenes together are not terrible. I quite enjoyed their interplay at times. If it ran for another 2 books, I might see it.

However, I didn’t like three aspects of the story. There is a very traumatic event right at the start that is total coincidence. I kept waiting for it to somehow tie together, but of course, it doesn’t. Secondly, there is a plot device used throughout 80% of the novel, and it is incredibly unrealistic, so the big twist at the end isn’t much of a twist. You’ve seen it coming from the beginning. Lastly, there is an extra twist and explanation at the end, all of which brings most of what happened in the book back to a situation of relatively simple misunderstanding. It felt more like a sitcom than a strong novel, where two characters have a miscommunication, never discuss it, and both go off in weird directions, only to lead to tragedy, almost Shakespearean in terms of misconnects for bad plotting.

Disclosure

I received a free copy of this book through an Amazon promotion. I am not personally friends with the author, nor have I ever interacted with them.

The Bottom Line

Too many shaky plot devices, but a good story for the writer’s part

Vanishing Act by Thomas Perry (2011) – BR00193 (2021) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
June 9 2021

Plot or Premise

Jane Whitefield is a Seneca woman living in NY state. She honours her ancestors and helps those who are in trouble to disappear and start a new life.

What I Liked

The premise of the main character’s “job” of helping people escape bad situations and start a new life — serving as their guide — is a fantastic premise, and the first half of the book is primarily about how she goes about doing her job. While some clients are eased into the process a bit more gradually, her latest client is all-in from day 1.

What I Didn’t Like

You know as the story unfolds that something is going to go wrong, you just don’t know what or when. Despite some initial success, some of it seems even TOO easy for her to do with a minimum of fuss. Mid-book, the type of story changes considerably, as the hunted becomes the hunter, and it isn’t as good as her other books that have a bit more mystery to them rather than action.

The Bottom Line

A great first book in the series, Whitefield is awesome.

By the Rivers of Babylon by Nelson DeMille (1978) – BR00014 (2001) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

The PolyBlog
February 18 2001

Plot or Premise

Peace in the Middle East is almost assured and two Concordes fly to New York with delegates for final negotiations. Terrorists try to derail the peace conference by planting bombs on board and taking the passengers hostage. After one plane is destroyed, killing all on board, the second plane is forced to land near Babylon. At the last minute, the hostages manage to escape to the top of a small hill from which they attempt to defend against the terrorists through several days of sorties, knowing that the military probably doesn’t know where they are and therefore can’t swoop in and rescue them.

What I Liked

Long before there was Clancy, there was DeMille. This book takes the international realm and stands it on its ear — there are (excruciating) details of the relations between the characters on both sides of the peace conference who are forced to work together to fight the terrorists. In addition, the battle tactics are first-rate, the writing is almost perfect, and the story is superb as the “hostages” fight in small groups with every weapon they have — gas bombs from the plane’s fuel tanks, sounds from a war movie blasted over speakers to simulate larger weaponry, etc.

What I Didn’t Like

There are a LOT of characters at the start of this book and it is hard to keep track of them all. Up until the end, there are too many small sub-plots — some are good, and necessary to flesh out the experience, but not all of them. There are fewer characters by the end though and it helps speed up the plotting. However, the ending is a little over-the-top, resembling a scene from a Die Hard movie more than keeping with the slightly more realistic tone of the rest of the book. As well, there is a meeting between the hostage-leaders and the terrorist-leader that is absolutely surreal. The likelihood of both parties treating it like a military battle with truces, etc., is virtually nil but it was at least interesting to read.

The Bottom Line

DeMille is the master of the game.

The Eleventh Commandment by Jeffrey Archer (1998) – BR00057 (1999) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
June 5 1999

Plot or Premise

Connor Fitzgerald is an assassin for the CIA. Black ops at its best. But when the CIA director orders a hit, and then wants to hide her involvement from the President, she tries to send Fitzgerald on a one-way futile assignment to Russia to prepare an assassination of the Russian Premier. Fitzgerald’s ex-mentor gets involved and figures out the plan, but too late to save CF from getting caught. A couple of twists later, however, and Fitzgerald is back in the States with the same mission — kill the Premier while he sits next to the President.

What I Liked

The storylines were inventive and well done. Not quite at the level of Clancy or De Mille, but well done still. The writing is first-rate and the story moves along at a good clip.

What I Didn’t Like

The relations between the CIA and Fitzgerald, and between the CIA and the Oval Office are not sufficiently fleshed out, leaving the story as having a little too light touch for the genre. Also, a couple of the twists are too well-telegraphed and you see them a mile off. And a small twist at the end, although expected, is handled far too lightly for the likely reality of the situation.

The Bottom Line

The story moves along at a good clip.