Deep Storm

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child have had great success in the thriller market. Starting with the quite good Relic, they co-wrote a number of stand-alone novels before fixating on the continuing adventures of their Special Agent Pendergast. Over time, I have become disenchanted with this character as he moved from quirky to bizarrely knowledgeable. His is simply too good at physical combat, psychological manipulation and deep knowledge of esoteric subjects.

While I am less enamored of their group work, their solo novels are picking up. Last year I read Preston's Tyrannosaur Canyon, which was quite fun. This weekend I finished Child's Deep Storm which is about as a good a mysterious artifact exploration thriller as you will find. This one succeeds where books like Black Monday fail because of its focus, its deception and its pace.

In thrillers like this one, all that matters is the characters interaction with each other and the chase after the secret/problem/whatever. If we get long asides about the character's past or families the novel loses its pace and our attention.

It is also helpful for the book to hold out its secret for as long as possible, for once we know what is going on, most of the interest is lost. Writers can salvage this with a surprise ending, but generally the last section of these thrillers includes the race against time element. This book has that too, but it also has a spooky ending and enough deception and red herrings to keep you guessing.

Obviously pace is key to prevent you from spotting plot holes and generally ridiculous behavior or ideas. This one keeps up the action with short chapters and lots of action. This doesn't approach literature, but it is great fun.