Good compilation even if not written by the master.
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Being an avid reader of James Patterson books I snapped this up thinking I would get varied stories written by the master himself. I was then disappointed to find he has only edited it.
Having said that there are a number of great short stories in the book and some that bored me rigid.
Compilations like this help discover writers you may not have previously tried before. Which is why I'm giving it a modest 3 stars.
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A bit of a Curate's Egg of a book!
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This book contains an anthology of short stories from a wide range of Thriller writers - some of whom I had discovered before, and some of whom were totally new to me. It has taken me a long time to work through (by my standards) - for a variety of reasons. One of these is that the stories varied greatly so greatly in style and you never knew what to expect when you moved from story to story! Most of them were intriguing, some were very enjoyable -enough so for me to want to research the outhors here and consider trying one of their full length books - and one or two left me cold, wondering what they had been all about! I found myself making brief notes in the index so that I could remember how I felt about the stories! (and I never normally write in books!)
Patterson's introductions to the stories were interesting - linking the short stories with the authors' other works and introducing us to their key characters; but it would have been nice to have seen contributions from him and some of his co-writers/ghost-writers in the anthology - whatever I may think of his more recent books!
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Alright but too many different styles
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Reading any of the stories individually was good, although it felt that reading all of the stories together (and there are a lot of short stories) was too much to take in and I ending up finding it difficult to out down a story after a few pages and pick another one up again, only to put it down again in a few pages.....
There were some really exciting stories and the way that James Patterson introduced each story/author was interesting.
I like thrillers and was looking forward to this book but ended up feeling rather disappointed.
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Well worth your money
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In terms of pages per Pound, this anthology is great value. My wife spotted it while shopping for 'holiday books' and from the minute she brought it home I was itching to read it.
The content is reasonably varied so there should be something to suit most thriller-based tastes. Many of the stories are very well thought out but there are a few which serve as very poor adverts for their authors. Still... I now know a few authors whose full-length novels I'd do well to avoid, so there's a silver lining to that cloud.
I'd rate this highly for un-put-down-ability, even though the book's subtitle "Stories to keep you up all night" is pushing it a little.
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Good short stories
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I recently picked this book up in the airport and read it on a holiday to Greece.This compilation covers just about everything from the espionage thriller to the serial killer story,with some great little twists along the way.One or two of the stories we're disappointing,but on the whole a good book to pass the time.
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