I’ll be at the bookstore early tomorrow picking up my copy of Julie Kramer’s debut Stalking Susan. The novel is about a serial killer who preys on women named Susan (what a hook!) and the investigative television reporter who tracks him. The novel not only has a kick-butt concept driven by the author’s real-world knowledge of the TV world, Doubleday really did an awesome job with the cover. It’s a fantastic-looking novel (reminds me a little of a vintage Ian Fleming paperback, in a good way), and it’s already getting very good reviews.  

In the bookstore today, looking. (And writing, of course. Always writing.) I picked up an author I’ve read before, and have been glad I did: the author is Brian Freeman, and the book is his newest, Stalked. The novel is a dead husband story with a hard twist, but what I like about Freeman’s books are how flawed the characters are. He’s willing to write really…well, real people, and that’s unusual in this genre, where you often see larger-than-life deities swooping in to save the day. I really liked Freeman’s debut, the Edgar-nominated Immoral, and this one may just be better. (Kudos to St. Martin’s on the cover, by the way. And speaking of that, how many good thriller writers is St. Martin’s going to publish? Holy shnikes they’re doing some good work over there. Nice work, guys.)

Getting fired up to see Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. It’s been a good summer for movies, actually, what with Iron Man kicking some serious butt and Indiana Jones returning and Wall-E showing once again that the guys and gals at Pixar are brilliant geniuses every single damn one of ‘em. (I’m also hearing good things about the French version of the Harlan Coben adaptation Tell No One.) But if Batman Begins was any indication, then TDK will be the cream of the summer crop. I thought Begins was a tour de force. Pure Nolan: inventive, edgy, dark, quasi-surreal. It was the best comic book movie I had ever seen and there wasn’t a close second. TDK is already getting some hellaciously good reviews, and guess what? Critics are treating it seriously, and what else could you ask for with a summer blockbuster? Can’t wait. While we bide our time waiting for the film’s release, let’s revisit Chris Nolan’s first (and best) film, the integral mindtrip noir Following, shall we?  

It’s often said that ideas do not make a good novel (or a film), it’s good writing and believable characters that make a novel memorable. I guess I would have to agree with that, but I have to say that new and innovative ideas are often the things that make me actually go from “maybe” to “definitely” when I’m in the bookstore. I love the high-concept, and I would go further to say that literature doesn’t have enough big-idea novels. Because literature is so packed with “name” authors, and because readers tend to like (and buy) those familiar tropes, the novel landscape is not as full of fresh and exciting concepts as I would like it to be. There have been some doozies in the recent past, though, from Kevin Brockmeier’s Brief History of the Dead to Chris Adrian’s (absolutely awesome) Gob’s Grief to Keith Donohue’s The Stolen Child to Gillian Flynn’s blistering thriller Sharp Objects to the mystery novels of Peter Abrahams. But I often go into a bookstore looking for a quirky, bold, inventive (and minimalistic; why are novels so fat nowadays?) tale and come away disappointed.  

Have you heard this? You should. You really should. 

As you probably know, I love a good thriller film. The problem is, they seem about as hot in Hollywood as fantasy epics. Which is to say they’re few and far between. (Why is it that you can walk into any Blockbuster in America and see rows of generic horror films but virtually no thrillers?) One very good one that I saw last year was Breach, a slickly made and profoundly unsettling movie about FBI agent Robert Hanssen. The movie is carried by the wonderful Chris Cooper, who is the best actor on the planet as far as I’m concerned. What’s interesting about this particular film is how simple it is. Its notions of morality and ethics are stated so starkly that they become, by the end, eloquent. Even though you may know the real-life history behind this event, you will believe Cooper’s character in spite of your own wisdom. A crafty, well-acted, important movie, Breach is definitely one to return to the video store to check out. 

As you probably know, I love weird stuff. Fiction, movies, music–if it’s out of the ordinary, I’m likely to give it a shot. I just found the super-prolific genre magician Walter Mosely’s The Man in My Basement. It’s a good read so far–and yes, it’s very weird. The novel is about a black man who rents his basement to a strange, balding white man. At first things go as planned, and then they get…odd. The main character discovers that the man in his basement is building something. Something mysterious and potentially violent, something that may be intended for the main character himself. The novel is not a mystery, per se, but it’s extremely suspenseful, mostly because Mosley never tips his hand, never tells the reader exactly what’s going on. Infused in this subtlety is a highly-charged story of race and racism. It isn’t often that “thrillers” (and I’m going to call this novel a thriller) get to deep societal issues, but this is one of them. 

Just got into Cory Doctor’s new YA, Little Brother. It has to be said that I never read young adult fiction. Never. But I have been dying to get my hands on a good “science-fiction” (I’ll put that in quotes because I’m not sure that’s where Doctorow is heading with this book, as cutting edge and urgent as it is) for a long, long time. And there’s been a lot of buzz about this particular novel–and for good reason. It’s been a fantastic read so far. It’s about a kid named Marcus who is imprisoned after a terrorist attack. When he gets out, he finds that the world is under lockdown and everyone is being surveilled. Funny, hip, and damn informative–yes, I said informative. You can learn a lot by reading Doctorow; he seems to know everything there is to know about technology and how to hack into it. This is a highly recommended read that’s only been out for a short time. Even if you do not read much YA, I guarantee you’ll enjoy what Doctorow does with this highly original book. 

I love paranoid conspiracy thrillers. I really enjoy the feeling that everyone in a particular story is a potential suspect. Strangely, there aren’t many writers who do nuanced novels of this variety. The books that come out of this school–and some are very fine–tend to be big, bloated, and way overwrought. They’re often global in the Tom Clancy/Robert Ludlum fashion…which is fine, but I’m always looking for a thriller that is more contained rather than blown up all over the map. The best I’ve found in recent years is Joseph Finder’s absolutely brilliant Paranoia. Not only is this a fun read (and it is very, very fun; this novel embodies the “page-turner” handle), Finder expertly shows what can be done using first-person. Not often do you see first-person stories that crackle like this one. The voice, the plot, the character–Paranoia is just an expertly accomplished thriller that is in a class by itself.  

Someone e-mailed me a suggestion of a novel that’s similar to the television show Lost: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. It’s a good example, mainly because the novel attempts to redefine the line of its own reality as the narrative progresses. I remember being drawn by the suggestion that House was a real manuscript when I first picked it up at Joseph-Beth Booksellers years ago. It’s a very scary (and flawed) novel about a strange house that seems to change dimensions once its owners move inside. Like Lost, it stretches genre: it’s essentially a horror novel, but sci-fi tropes abound. Also like Lost, Danielewski uses the false document theme to create “layers” in the story that supercede the constraints of reality. Good suggestion, reader.