TUESDAY TOP THREE: Thrillers

I've always been a sucker for a good thriller. A good thriller (to me), makes me want to keep reading, but also want put the book down because 1) it's freaking me out OR 2) I don't want it to end.



The Shining by Stephen King

I'm sure you've probably seen the movie...but I highly recommend reading the book. I've read a lot of old-school Stephen King books and this one has consistently stood out as the best. It is such a mental book because you're subconsciously pairing what you've seen on screen with what you're reading. I was very tense reading this book because the haunted hotel vibe was so vividly written.

This book is actually based on an experience Stephen King and his wife had in a similar hotel. When King decided to write this book, he moved his family to Boulder and one weekend they went on a weekend trip to a nearby hotel. It was the end of the season for this hotel and they were the only guests in the hotel (which also had long empty corridors.) They ate dinner alone in a huge ballroom with taped orchestra music playing throughout the hotel. That night King wandered the hotel alone, had a drink with a bartender named Grady, and then had a nightmare about the creepy vibe of the hotel...and thus The Shining was born.

The Ruins by Scott Smith

This book was also made into a movie, but luckily I read the book right when it came out so I was not tainted by the horrible movie adaptation. Disclaimer: this is not an A+ thriller, BUT it's the kind of book that has stuck with me over the past few years. And I think it says a lot that with the variety books I've read.

A group of Americans are vacationing in Mexico and decide to explore and go on a hike. While on their hike, they come across these old ruins. Once they enter the ruins (after being warned not to) the nearby villagers will not allow them to come down from the ruins. So the Americans are forced to explore the ruins and then some really creepy stuff starts to happen.

It sounds really silly, but it's actually a very gripping book...I wanted to stop reading it, but had to find out what happened next. It's a good book to read when you want something easy to blow through.

The Manhattan Hunt Club by John Saul
John Saul's books were my first foray into thrillers in high school. Everytime I go to the used bookstore, I'll check his shelf for any new paperbacks. His older books are much better than his newer stuff, but this book is one exception.

A young man (Jeff) is accused of a crime he didn't commit. On his way to prison, his paddy wagon is in a car crash and he escapes with a homeless man into the subway tunnels of NYC. Jeff keeps trying to get out of the tunnels, but for different reasons cannot escape. As the story develops, we find out about the homeless people who live in the subway tunnels. It's equally horrifying and super interesting. As the story progresses, we find out (I'm not giving anything away here) that there is an elite group of Manhattan men who "hunt criminals" in these tunnels. And Jeff was put down there as part of a game.

At the end of the book, the author gives a quick blurb about people who actually live in subway tunnels. Apparently at one time, there was a large population of homeless people in the NYC subway tunnels, but there was a large relocation initiative a while back to move them out. I've re-read this book a couple of times...and while it's a real page-turner, it's also really cool to read about this possible underground lifestyle that homeless people in NYC lead.

TIDBIT: After some quick research, homeless people who live like this are referred to as "mole people."  There is a lot of debate on if these underground societies of mole people really exist...