Writers Read: Jeff Abbott

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Jeff Abbott

Jeff Abbott is the New York Times bestselling author of Adrenaline and its sequel, The Last Minute, which is just out. Both books feature Sam Capra, former CIA agent turned owner of bars around the world.
A few weeks ago I asked Abbott what he was reading. His reply:

I've had a terrific summer of reading. Just finished Charlotte Rogan's The Lifeboat, her debut novel about a social climber in 1914 who finds herself in an overcrowded lifeboat when the luxury liner she's honeymooning on sinks in the north Atlantic. Terrific writing, beautifully paced, and Grace Winter is a most interesting unreliable narrator. In this tiny, claustrophobic setting, Grace struggles with the big questions: who lives and who dies? What is the secret of the two people in the lifeboat who are vying for control? And how far will she go to survive?

Don Winslow's Savages and its just published prequel Kings of Cool are rightly getting raves. The style is very suited to our attention-deficit world: super short chapters, a blend of poetry, prose, and screenplay. But where a lesser writer would make this seem choppy, Winslow makes it a rich mosaic that still delves deep into the characters. An absolute thrill ride. I hope the Oliver Stone film does justice to the story.

Greg Rucka's Alpha might best be described as '24 set at Disneyland'. It's the start of a new series featuring special ops officer Jad Bell, and here he must stop a terrorist attack on the world's most popular theme park. The characterizations are sharp, the action is nonstop and very cleverly executed. I've recommended this book to friends who don't like 'action' style books and they all loved it.

Finally, Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel was the book I was most looking forward to this summer and she doesn't disappoint. The sequel to the superb Wolf Hall, here Mantel charts out the further career of Thomas Cromwell—the peasant boy who rose to be King Henry VIII's most trusted advisor, the man who dethroned Katherine of Aragon and put Anne Boleyn's head under a crown—and then under an executioner's axe. Marvelously written and thoroughly entertaining.