The Triumph of the Thriller: How Cops, Crooks, and Cannibals Captured Popular Fiction Review

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The Triumph of the Thriller: How Cops, Crooks, and Cannibals Captured Popular Fiction ReviewEvery Monday, Patrick Anderson writes a book review column for the Washington Post. Instead of covering literary books, Anderson reviews what is popularly known as "thriller" fiction. THE TRIUMPH OF THE THRILLER is Anderson's effort to explain the history and popularity of thrillers, as well as offer his opinion of today's best thriller writers.
THE TRIUMPH OF THE THRILLER is a highly informative book overall. Anderson produces a short history of the thriller as a genre, and provides his opinions of writers as diverse as Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie, Lawrence Sanders and John McDonald. He also focuses a lot of attention on modern thriller writers, including the four authors he considers "modern masters" -- Michael Connelly, Thomas Harris, Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos.
I liked this book, because I enjoy reading thrillers. But THE TRIUMPH OF THE THRILLER has some real problems. Most notably, it's highly slanted in favor of Anderson's view of what a good "thriller" is supposed to be. In Anderson's opinion, the best thrillers are serious, dark novels that explore deep psychological issues. For example, Anderson does not consider John Sandford to be a modern master. Why? Because, in Anderson's words, Sanford is "too entertaining" to be taken seriously. Since when is being entertaining a liability? In taking this position, Anderson's views border on the literary elitism that he decries in the later chapters of this book.
Also, Anderson has a rather elastic definition of what a thriller is. Is Sue Grafton a thriller writer? He seems to believe so, but I always thought that Grafton wrote mysteries. And why include Sue Grafton and not Robert Parker? Why isn't Harlan Coben even mentioned? He writes some of the best thrillers around. And what about medical thriller writers like Robin Cook, Michael Palmer, and Tess Gerritsen? Or psychological thriller writers like Jonathan Kellerman and Stephen White? They are all completely ignored. Instead, Anderson devotes precious pages to a writer like Nicholas Sparks, who nobody in their right mind would categorize as a thriller writer.
Mr. Anderson also offers some unorthodox opinions about certain prominent writers. For example, he largely dismisses Robert Crais and Lee Child as writers who do not write about "interesting characters" but "killing machines." Anderson has a right to his opinion, but this view is totally out of the mainstream, given the enormous amount of critical and popular acclaim that both Mr. Child's and Mr. Crais's books have deservedly received. My advice is to give both writers a try -- they are two of the best thriller authors in the business.
In short, THE TRIUMPH OF THE THRILLER is okay, but it essentially boils down to one man's rather idiosyncratic opinion of what good thrillers are. In the end, your satisfaction with this book will depend on how in sync you are with Anderson's personal tastes. In my personal opinion, this book is worth a look, but it should be taken with a heavy grain of salt.The Triumph of the Thriller: How Cops, Crooks, and Cannibals Captured Popular Fiction Overview

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