As I was browsing books at a Hudson News in the Portland, Oregon airport terminal, I smiled to myself because it was the first time that I had ever bought an “airport book” to read while traveling in an actual airport. Don’t get me wrong, I have read many such books. They are fairly short, easily digestible, and have brisk enough pacing that every cover editor feels the obligation to bandy around the workhorse clichè “page-turner.” There was a particularly fruitful stretch when I was between the ages of 11 to 14 where I must have read upwards of 600 of them; Robin Cook and Michael Crichton (may he rest in peace, that’s a different post altogether) scientific thrillers, Tom Clancy military thrillers, Ian Fleming and Clive Cussler action-adventure novels. Then there were the mysteries. I read all of the current writers, Janet Evanovitch, J.A. Jance, Patricia Cornwell, Lilian Jackson Braun, Carolyn Hart. I read all of the old series: Nero Wolfe, Hercule Poirot, Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe. Then I discovered the magic of British mysteries: G.K. Chesterson, Agatha Christie, P.D. James…
I just drifted completely off track. The point I want to make is that I have read more than a few legal thrillers in my day. I have even read more than a few written by John Grisham. Continue reading “Book Review: The Appeal”
hammer & jack 