Agent Palmer

I have a process. I read a book, I write about it, and then it goes into the queue for publication. My system, while not perfect, is mine. And I never start a new book without first writing about the one I just finished. Since I started the blog, I’ve not skipped a review.

I’ve been alternating my reading habits between fiction and non-fiction for a while now, but most of my fiction has been realistic fiction. These are stories that exist in a made-up real world. It could be argued that The Yiddish Policeman’s Union is realistic fiction that feels like surrealistic fiction, which was one of the reasons I couldn’t put it down.

Finding something relevant in a book 20 years after I was supposed to read it seems par for the course.

Normally it is possible to argue with an inside dust jacket quote, but in this case, it’s improbable. “Spy Sinker is the crescendo climax of the six previous bestselling novels by Len Deighton–and it ties them all together.” Spy Sinker is the culmination of the six previous novels, but it’s so much more than that. In a way, Berlin Game, Mexico Set, London Match, Winter, Spy Hook, and Spy Line are the dots plotted on a graph in the Bernard…

Michael Crichton’s The Lost World is a melding of espionage, extinction, and evolution. It’s much more of a short story in scope than Jurassic Park is as a novel. But the tension and thriller aspects of the book make for a gripping read.