Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads

The most riveting reads in history meet some of today's biggest thriller writers in "Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads."
Edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner, the book examines 100 seminal works of suspense through essays contributed by such esteemed modern thriller writers as: David Baldacci, Steve Berry, Sandra Brown, Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, Tess Gerritsen, Heather Graham, John Lescroart, Gayle Lynds, Katherine Neville, Michael Palmer, James Rollins, R. L. Stine, and many more.
"Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads" features 100 works from "Beowulf" to "The Bourne Identity", "Dracula" and "Deliverance", and from "Heart of Darkness" to "The Hunt for Red October" as deemed must-reads by the International Thriller Writers organization.
Much more than an anthology, "Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads" goes deep inside the most notable thrillers published over the years. Through lively, spirited, and thoughtful essays that examine each work's significance, impact, and influence. "Thrillers .." provides both historical and personal perspective on these spellbinding works which have kept readers on the edge of their seats for a few years or centuries.
"Storytellers began thrilling their audiences before human beings learned to write. When a poet-singer called Homer entranced his listeners in the Mediterranean almost three thousand years ago, one of his staples was a tale that could fit on any airport shelf today: Odysseus fighting against extraordinary odds to return home from war to save his threatened wife and son.
Today, thrillers provide a rich literary feast embracing a wide variety of worlds--the law, espionage, action-adventure, medicine, police and crime, romance, history, politics, high-tech, religion, and many more. But old or new--and this vibrant field never remains still--all thrillers share certain characteristics. Like Homer trying to keep his audience captive while telling his tale in ancient Greece, thriller authors are constantly aware that their readers want them to provide the sudden rush of emotions: the excitement, suspense, apprehension, and exhilaration that drive the narrative, sometimes subtly, with peaks and lulls, sometimes at a constant, breakneck pace. By definition, if a thriller does not thrill, it is not doing its job."